


The Newest Adjustment

by moonmunk



Category: Deltarune (Video Game), Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Eventual Romance, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, General Shenanigans, M/M, Mute Frisk (Undertale), Non-Binary Frisk, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Self-Insert, Slow Burn, eventual smut(?)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-08-22 13:47:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 27
Words: 61,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16599026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonmunk/pseuds/moonmunk
Summary: I wanted to write a story about a relationship with Ralsei. I'm really not expecting this to get anywhere but I had a friend that wanted to read it if she could so I'm posting it here so... Cool.





	1. Moving is scary

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [tonight I'll need you to stay](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5597362) by [rosesandspades713](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosesandspades713/pseuds/rosesandspades713). 



> This story is kind of a continuation of RosesandSpades story "Tonight I'll need you to stay" in that it takes place in the same universe, with their permission. Go check it out if you want a better story than mine.
> 
> [Edit] I just got a new editor, carryonmybabycastiel48. She's going to help me keep my tenses straight because I'm absolutely terrible at that kind of stuff, and I keep typing "you" instead of "i" or "He". It's a symptom of having read RosesandSpades' story first... also a problem with my family, apparently my mom does it too.

The feeling of moving to a new town, it fills you with determination.

 

I had been a bit terrified about this move for a while, but I'd visited the town a couple of times to see my friend, and she made me feel right at home. Her and her friends and boyfriend. They were… an odd sort. I mean what else can I say about two goat people, two skeletons, and a lesbian fish whose married to a lizard… dinosaur… thing. Not that I have any problem with that, of course. I tend to have a lot of fun with them, and every time I go over there I tend to get roped up in their shenanigans, even managing to cause a few of my own. Alice, my friend, always ends up groaning when I ask to train with Undyne. I think it's because she always ends up having to clean up both her back yard and me when we're done. Most times I don't win, but I'm determined, one of these days, to beat her. It's a life goal.

Regardless I had a fair amount of reasons to move. For starters, Tucson was getting boring as shit. I had grown up there, so I had a lot of love for it… but only in short bursts. Living  there long term had made me a bit jaded and restless. I suffered from a want to see the world, one that only got worse when I found out we shared this world with monsters. They were fascinating individuals to me, I even dated one for a while, a cute bunny girl that had moved here almost immediately. She had told me she was happy to be out of the cold and decided to go for the exact opposite of what she was used to. It turns out… bunnies aren't exactly built for heat so she ended up moving away.

There was also the matter of having an excellent job opportunity out there and a good place to be. Being a CNA had its advantages: I could move wherever I wanted and have a job there.

All this went through my mind as I drove north, towards Minnesota. It was gonna be a long drive, and the fees on the U-Haul truck trailing behind me were gonna be astronomical, but it was worth it. Everything I was doing was going to be worth it in the long haul, even if it was nerve wracking and anxiety inducing.

The thing I was most worried about was the place I was moving. It was a house, not too terribly far from Alice's place, but it was shared with someone I hadn’t met before. His name was… Ralsei? I think that was it anyway. We had been talking back and forth through email and then through text for a good while. He seemed like a nice enough person, but I was nervous regardless. I had never lived with a stranger before. My roommates had either been family members or my own thoughts. The idea of moving in with a stranger… well… let's just say I'd have rather moved into a place of my own, but that just wasn't feasible in this day and age. I continued to ponder this as I drove before eventually letting the music calm me down. Everything would be alright, and besides… it's hard to be upset or anxious when you have a badass 80s playlist on Pandora to guide you through the drive.


	2. The biggest ball of fluff in minnesota

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rori meets his new roommate, and gets to spend time with some of his friends!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm bad at coming up with titles....  
> This chapter is coming so soon after the first one (Immediately) because the first was short as fuck and that makes me a bit sad. I'm not the best at set up.

The effort of speeding without getting arrested, it fills you with determination.

 

I got to Minnesota in record time, thanks to crackerjack driving and good instincts. I didn't pass the speed limit far enough to get pulled over, but definitely far enough to make good time. I pulled up to the house in the early morning, having driven through the night tirelessly so I could be there on time. The U-Haul popped up behind me as well as another car, containing the driver’s coworker so he could get home. I nodded and shook the man's hand, then tipped him a pretty decent amount before waving at him as they left. They were a huge help, but I wouldn’t need them after this point. That's why we have friends, is it not? I'd buy them something nice to make it up to them. I walked up to the door, shaking a bit from both anxiety and excitement. Lifting my hand I gave a nervous knock on the door. It wasn't long before I was greeted by… he looked like a goat person, but he was wearing a green hat that kept his face in the shadows. He also was wearing a green robe with a black heart on it, and a red scarf. He had circular glasses with green ribs, and I could already tell that there was a pattern here. He was short; I towered above him at my 6’4” I smiled and held out a hand. “Howdy. I'm Rori…”

He looked at me and a smile appeared on his face. It was kinda adorable. I knew I'd have a problem immediately. My natural instinct was to protect this sweet innocent cinnamon roll no matter what the cost. My other instinct was that he was probably pretty great at cuddling, which was a weird, but not entirely unusual thought. What can I say? Snuggles are the best. He took my hand and it was… furry. I could kinda tell from his features that he was a monster right off the bat, but past that I couldn't figure out what kind. Maybe he was a goat person, like Toriel or Asgore. He had the ears for it… but I suppose he could be akin to a dog as well. Regardless, I knew I’d be able to get along with him.

“H-hello Rori, I'm Ralsei. It's a pleasure to meet you in person, instead of just in message.”

His voice was soft, and slightly melodious. I liked it. I could tell I wouldn't mind hearing it more often, and I didn't fully know how to feel about that fact. “Come on in, I'll show you around.”

I nodded and follow the short fur boy around. His set up was pretty sweet, but I knew I'd have to ask him if I could make some adjustments to the place. For starters his sound system was pretty basic. His cables were tangled around haphazardly which made my eye twitch…. his DVD collection was organized, though that wasn't hard considering how little he actually had. There were a few other things around that I'd take the time to work on while I waited for work to start, which would be in about a week or so. Regardless, the place was pretty damn homey. If I were on some sort of HGTV house flippers program the realtors would probably spend most of the time I was there describing it as “warm”, after all everything is “warm” when it comes to real estate. “Look at these curtains. They're so warm. Oh check out this sofa, it's so warm… don't mind the shit in the corner, it's just warmly sitting there”, and I said as much.

“It’s nice in here. You’ve got an eye for interior decorating.”

He blushed a bit, and smiled. “Why thank you. I do my best with what I have… I don't have a lot in the way of decorations. I'm new to the surface so… I'm still getting things set up.”

I nodded. “Makes sense. It's probably going to take me a while to get settled here as well. But hey… we can decorate together. That's what roommates are for right?”

He nodded back, but didn't look at me as he did. “Of course! I look forward to seeing what you bring to the table.”

That made me blush a bit. I tended to keep a minimalistic decoration style. The stuff I did put up was mostly video game related things, save for a poster of Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn all tatted up, and a poster for the Game Grumps’ five year celebration tour that I got a few years ago, but even that was game related. 

He continued to give me a tour of the place. It was pretty simplistic. Two floors, two bedrooms and a one and a half bath. The half bathroom was in his room, but the main bathroom was pretty big. And so was my room, come to think of it. I didn't know how I'd fill the place. My things were not that space consuming. The biggest thing I had was my bed and my TV, if I'm being perfectly honest. The kitchen was also pretty decently sized. Having come from a small apartment complex to here, that was a huge bonus for me. I had a particular love of cooking, so finding that out left me elated. There was enough room there for all of my pots, pans and silverware as well as his things, which again, were pretty minimal. I had to wonder what he ate during the day, with as few groceries and cooking apparatuses as he had. I made a mental promise to show him the best cuisine us humans had to offer, that I could cook or bake anyway. 

When the tour was done I leaned against the kitchen doorway, crossing my arms and smiling at him. “Well I gotta say I'm excited to live here. It'll be pretty awesome. It's gonna take me a little while to get everything all set up, but regardless… it'll be good. When is rent due?”

Ralsei shrugged. “Whenever you can throughout the month. Honestly the rent mostly would go towards general upkeep on the house itself, as well as bills. That's why it's so cheap.”

I blinked at that, a bit shocked. “You don't have to pay mortgage or rent on it yourself?”

He nodded “Nope. This place is mine, truly and fully.”

I gave him a slightly suspicious glance. “What do you do for work that you were able to buy this place so shortly after being on the surface?”

He smiled a bit and blushed. “I had… gathered a fair bit of money where I'm from…. Converting it was pretty simple from there. Used a good bit of it to get this place.”

I gave a look of approval. “Cool. Well, I'll do my best to keep it good.” My phone vibrated and I cursed under my breath as I checked it and typed out a response. It'd probably be good to ask my roommate if it was okay to have people over. “Hey Rals? Do you mind if I have some people over to help me move in? I'll make something good for dinner to make up for the short notice.”

His blush deepened, and I didn’t know why. Normally when I made people blush, the few times that I did it, I could pinpoint where it came from… but with this one I honestly had no clue.

“S-sure, but you don't have to worry about it. You live here too, you can have people over whenever.”

I smiled and put a hand on his shoulder. “We are roommates mate, that means I'm gonna do my best to keep you updated when something like this happens. It's your right to know just as much as it’s my privilege to have people over.” I chose those words pretty carefully. I didn't wanna tread on any toes but something told me that I was his first roommate.

He continued to blush and it was getting to be adorable, if not a small bit confusing, and answered only with a nod. It wasn't long after until I heard a knock at the door. Checking the viewport first I was created by two almost perpetually smiling skeletons, a truly beautiful gal and a smallish child. I opened the door and was ambushed by hugs from the taller of the skeletons and the child.

“Welcome home Rori! We were so happy when we found out you were moving here!” The skeleton said.

I hugged them both back and nodded. “Of course Papyrus. It's impossible for me to stay away from you two.”

What made you decide to stay?

I smiled at Frisk, and signed back. “Well I just couldn't stand seeing your sad face whenever I left.” I switched to speaking out loud. “It's great to see you again, Alice, Sans.”

Alice smiled. “Always a pleasure. I'm glad you managed to find a place and all that.”

Sans nodded and waved lazily, his usual modus operandi. There was something about Sans that was… well, not necessarily bad, but rather off. He had a capacity for power like I had never seen before, and it all remained hidden under a blue jacket and a laissez-faire attitude.

“Lets get started, and I'll introduce you all to my roommate as we go. He's really nice, but seems a bit nervous…”


	3. The best treat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rori and ralsei get to know each other a bit better!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Typed this one up last night and it's one of my favourites so far

The power of fluffy boys, it fills you with determination.

 

It took a good while to get everything actually into the house. Alice made Sans help out, so he and I spent a lot of time moving some of the bigger things into my room. The dresser was by far the hardest. I've always been pretty alright in the strength department, but dressers always caused me some major fuckin issues. I hated them, that's why I only really owned one. I also had two bedside tables and one of those things that you usually put at the foot of your bed. Surprisingly enough, my bed was gotten up super easily. I don't know how, all I  know is I felt a crackle of energy while I was taking a break in the kitchen and talking to Ralsei, then when I got out to the truck it was gone. My paranoia, of course, piqued, and I ran upstairs to find it already in the room. I shrugged it off. Some monsters were capable of weird things, and I wasn't going to question it if it meant I didn't have to deal with moving it myself.

When we got everything out of the truck, I looked at the clock. Still a good amount of time before it should be dinner time. I decide to recruit Alice to help me do a few things. Ralsei asked if Sans, Papyrus and Frisk would be willing to stick around. They intrigued him, for some reason. They agreed, and I shrugged before heading out with Alice. We ended up dropping off the U-Haul and then she took me to the store to pick up a few things for that promised dinner. I decided to grab some stuff for a dessert as well. It was only appropriate. Eventually I got back home and started working in the kitchen. The guests left; they had stuff they had to do and for the first time since I met them, it didn't make me sad. I knew I could go see them tomorrow and any day after that that I wanted to. Ralsei snuck into his room at some point, a habit I hoped wouldn't form. I liked my privacy, don't get me wrong, but I liked Ralsei, and I felt like I wanted to make him a friend, not just a roommate. 

Dessert was a pretty easy set up: beat some eggs, whisk some bowls, pour and stick it in the oven. Pretty soon the house was filled with the wonderful scent of red velvet cake, my personal favourite, even if I don't eat cake that often. Once that was in the oven I started working on dinner, boiling noodles and making the sauce for chicken alfredo. Ralsei ended up poking his head around the corner after a while and sniffing. 

“Wh… what are you cooking?”

I looked at him over my shoulder and smirked “Special recipe, it's my father's. I think you'll like it.”

“O-oh… um… would you potentially be willing to, uh… teach me?”

I blinked and then smiled. “Come here, give this a stir”

Sure enough the fuzzboy came over and picked up the wooden spoon, stirring it gently. My smile got brighter and I went over to start cutting up chicken. We continued doing that for a good while. About half way through I pulled out a spoon and dipped it into the cheese sauce, then put my hand under it and held it up to him. “Here Rals, try this. It'll give you a good impression of what you're doing. It's always good to try your food while you cook it to see how you're doing”

He blushed a little but leaned forward. He took the spoon in his mouth, let the taste process, then swallowed. His face lit up and he smiled. “That's really good!”

I smirked. “Family recipe, mon ami. It's pretty good if you ask me.”

“I… think I'm going to like having you here, if you continue to cook like this…”

I chuckled lightly “Well I hope I have a few more redeeming qualities than cooking buuut...” I went back to stirring the pot, switching between that and the chicken. “I can accept that too.” I turned around and dumped the water from the noodles into the sink, before turning off the heat for that burner. I then started focussing on the other ingredients. “Cooking truly is an art, and a science too. If you know how to do it right, you can make anything taste good.”

He watched me as I cooked, a shy smile on his face. “Well if you're willing to teach me, I'd love to learn.”

I nodded “I'd be happy to.”

It wasn't long after that before we were chowing down, enjoying a nice meal together as a celebration, to good roommates and good health. Not long after that the two of us were sitting on the couch, sharing stories while eating cake. I found out that he was originally from a dark world type deal. He didn't tell me what he did there, but I still enjoyed hearing him talk. He had a super soothing voice. It was enough to completely relax me, even from the move and the stress of the past few weeks. 

By the end of the cake pieces, which took both of us a truly long time to finish, what with me not really being a big cake eater and him being consumed by talking, I was as cool as a cucumber. It was like all my worries and anxiety had melted away from talking to him. I wondered if that might have been his magic power. I had heard from people I had a similar effect, but I doubted it was even close to this extent. Before I even knew it I looked over and realized it was getting close to 1 in the morning. I blushed a bit and rubbed the back of my neck. “Shit… I'm sorry Rals. Its… already late as hell. I'll let you get to bed.” I stood up and stretched, making a groaning noise as I did. It's my opinion that a stretch is never satisfactory enough unless you make an unnecessary noise. It's practically a part of my creed at this point. Out of habit from the job I reached down and held out a hand for Ralsei. He took it and I pulled him up but he was significantly lighter than I expected. What was intended to be a friendly assist to stand up ended with me hurling him up and him flying a bit before smacking into my chest. Instinctually his arms wrapped around me for safety. We both ended up blushing from that. I looked down at him and and he looked up at me. My heart tightened up. Then my eyes rounded. Nope. Fuck that shit. Nooooope. I got him back down onto his feet and steadied him, then took a step back and put my hands in my pockets.

“I uh… sorry bout that. You… have a good night. I'll see you in the morning….” With that I grabbed the plates and took them to the kitchen, then absconded to my room before he had a chance to say anything. 

 

_____________________

 

_ That was… strange…, _ he thought as Rori ran up the stairs. He went up to his room and sat down on the bed, taking off his hat and robe and getting ready for bed. Rori was an interesting person, as far as Ralsei was concerned. He seemed kind and nice. He was already willing to help out as much as possible, and already paid up a months rent in advance. To make matters more interesting, Ralsei had to admit that he was attractive, where humans are concerned. Not that he was like that, he just hadn't met many humans yet and the ones he had met didn't hold much appeal to him. There was, of course, Kris… but if his theories were correct… Kris wasn't even in this reality. His research had brought him to the conclusion that there are a bunch of timelines that run parallel to each other, and somehow he ended up in one that was significantly not his own. That one skeleton… what was his name? Sans? Had explained some of it to him and all but confirmed this theory. 

But that was something to figure out later. For now he had to decide how he felt about his new roommate. He was tall… that was the first thing he noticed. He almost towered above Ralsei. Not that that was a bad thing. The top shelves were difficult to reach and he was getting sick of pulling out the step stool every time he needed a mug. Rori had short cropped hair in a style that was reminiscent to that one god… in that one superhero movie. He couldn't remember the name of that too well to be perfectly honest. It was a nice blonde colour. It looked nice on him. It didn't help that he wore a leather jacket and jeans when he came in, or that the way his glasses sat semi-crooked on his nose was… kinda cute?

And he was strong too. That pull… he wasn't expecting that. Ralsei was pretty light… but even still he definitely wasn't ready to be pulled up that hard. It was… interesting. Rori had caught him as soon as he realized the mistake, but Ralsei had still ended up falling into him. Rori was soft… but firm. Like one of those mattresses that's firm on the lower levels but with a pillow topping on it. Small bit of chub with muscle underneath. It was comfortable. And the time spent with him had been the best time he'd had since coming to what everyone had called the surface. Then again, he hadn't spent a whole lot of time outside of the house lately. There was definitely a few things he had to think about… or maybe this is why he had heard people talk about sleeping on things. It wasn't long before he curled up in his bed, pulled up the blankets around him, and fell into a firm sleep.


	4. A wonderful meal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ralsei and Rori decide to relax after a semi busy week of work, and Ralsei has something special planned to do it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it's official, I'm terrible about waiting to post chapters. Honestly I'm probably going to just post them when I'm done writing/editting them. So... ya know... no official time table for when they're going to be uploaded but I'm gonna do my best to make sure y'all get at least one per day. 
> 
> This one's a bit longer everyone!

The wonders of a new job, it fills you with determination.

 

Adjusting to a new job is never the easiest. As a matter of fact I’d say that the combination of adjusting to a new house, as well as a new job, and a new town is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. Luckily Ralsei is making the adjustment to the house pretty easily. I mean, hell, he let me put up a fair bit of my posters in some of the main areas. He told me that I could put a few more in there, but I didn’t want to bombard him immediately. I even got the chance to put up my Bird picture, simply a picture of a bird flying around… nothing special to the normal eye, but to me it held a lot of sentimentality. I worked hard to buy that 10 dollar piece of crap and I cherished it every day. I wanted to be buried with that damn bird picture if I could.   
  
Of course Alice, Sans and friends did their best to adjust me to Minnesota, which basically ended with me being bundled up in the middle of summer because the north is cold as all sorts of hell. They definitely liked to pick on me for that one.   
  
“Are you seriously wearing a sweatshirt under a leather jacket Rori?” Sans was smirking at me.   
  
“Yeah, what’s your point Numbskull?” I retorted, daring to pull my hand out of my pocket and pull up my scarf over my face.   
  
“I can’t tell whether you’re wearing the leather jacket for heat or for fashion.” Alice jumped in. They didn’t understand how important heat was to me yet.    
  
“Listen.” I raised an eyebrow at the two of them. “It keeps me warm, and it looks damn good on me alright? I get warmth, and the gals.”   
  
Sans snickered. “Gals, I don’t know. But the way Rals looks at you tells me that he might be into the look.”   
  
I elbowed him. “Shut up, Sans. He’s a cool dude, but I’m not interested in him like that”   
  
Alice coughed a little bit at that. I ignored her.   
  
“And besides, it doesn’t behoove me to do anything there. He’s my roommate. It’d be a baaaad idea.”   
  
Alice blinked then looked at me. “Wait… cool… hoove… bad… did you just casually slip three puns into this conversation?”   
  
“Four, if you were paying attention. Which you weren’t, of course.” I smirked and gave her a double finger guns and a wink. Sans and I had already had our pun wars, but for the time being I was staying out of it with Alice. She pulled unfair moves. It just wasn’t nice.

 

And of course outside of the friend group I was doing alright at work. It was taking me a minute to get used to where everything was, but other than that I had been handling this kind of a career for years now. It was really nothing new. Some people would be upset by what I do; it was consuming, both mentally and emotionally, but it paid well, better here than in Arizona, and it was satisfying work. I was at an actual hospital now, instead of a care home, and they had paid me extra because of my willingness to take extra courses to learn about monster biology instead of just human, so I could take care of them better. It was good to see people get better and feel better because if the work I did. Though, I had to admit, the slight look of worry on Ralsei's face whenever I came home from how tired I looked did give some idea of the toll it took on my body. This became pointedly clear at the end of my work week on Saturday, when I walked in to a not entirely unpleasant smell radiating through the house.

 

I put down my bag and set my keys to the side before setting off to explore the source of the smell. When I walked into the kitchen I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a batch of cookies baking in the kitchen, and when I checked the fridge to get a soda, I saw some interesting ingredients sitting out and about. I started to search around for my goat boy (for it was confirmed he was a goat but he used a bit of magic to keep his fur black and unrecognizable) roommate. He calmed me down pretty well. I found him sitting in his room, and knocked gently. He was wearing his pajamas that I had given him earlier as a sign of good will, fleece with little black hearts on them, and a shirt with the symbol for Capricorn on it. I gave a tiny chuckle when I saw it. He had no idea about why I found it funny, he looked like a character from homestuck at that moment, But regardless he looked up at me when I knocked and put his laptop to the side, another purchase I had shelled out the cash for so he could have something to do during the day.

 

“Hey there Rori!” he beamed at me, and it made me feel instantly better. It was hard to be angry or upset when he was around.

 

“Howdy Rals, What's going on in the kitchen?” I tilted my head a bit and leaned against the door frame.

 

“Oh! I was baking some cookies… oatmeal raisin. Your favourite right?” We had discussed favourites earlier and since he probably didn't know about everyone's distaste of the cookie type I felt comfortable telling him. It put a small smile on my face that he remembered.

 

“For sure. I appreciate it. Why for though?”

 

“Well you've clearly had a rough week… And even though you won't tell me why,” (I had told him early on that I didn't want to burden him with all my problems or anything, so I would keep my ranting to a minimum. All in all I loved my job, but there were definitely things that got to me from time to time.) “I can still tell, and I wanted to do something to make you feel better. I figured it's your weekend… so I was going to make something nice for you and help you relax.”

 

I blinked and blushed a bit. What did I do to deserve such an awesome roommate? “Well I certainly appreciate it. You didn't have to though.”

 

His smile got bigger, and more infectious. “I know. But I wanted to. Now…” he got up and took my hand, I told my heart to shut the hell up when it did a flip at his touch. He then proceeded to guide me towards the bathroom. As I get closer there's another scent, that of pumpkin spice. He leads me inside and I come to find that he has set up a bath for me. It must have been recently that he did so considering that I can still see steam rising up from the water. There is a candle burning on the counter, evidently where the scent was coming from. 

 

I looked at him a bit shocked and he smiled back at me. “You need a break, so go ahead and take your bath and enjoy it. I'll make dinner tonight. I nabbed your recipe book and picked out something that I think you'll like.”

 

I looked at the tub and then at him, then hugged him tight. “Thank you Rals. I appreciate it, truly. You’re an awesome roommate”

 

He straightened out in surprise, then wrapped his arms around me in turn. We stayed like that for a moment before both of us realized what we were doing, and Sans’ words came back to me. We quickly separated and took a step back from each other. Suddenly the designs on the ceiling were super interesting to me, and I could feel heat rushing across my face. I didn't see his face for a moment, but he stepped out of the bathroom and I could hear the blush in his voice.

 

“I-I'll leave ya to it, I have to work on d-dinner. Take your time… though.” with that, he scampered off down the stairs. I watched him as he went and had to get a control of my thoughts before I closed the door and got ready for my bath.

 

___________________

 

“Hey Sans? How can you tell if you like someone?” Ralsei typed out the message as he started cooking. He had the perfect plan for dinner and he didn't wanna mess it up, but he also had some questions that he felt needed an answer. He continuously referred to the cookbook while he worked. Rori had been teaching him a bit about cooking, so that was good and he had some small amount of intuition for it, but he was determined to do this right, and to do so he had to do the cooking by the book.

 

“Well I think you would know. It's just when you enjoy their company, I guess.”

 

He sighed. “That’s… not what I meant. Like how you and Alice like each other…”

 

“Oh. Uh… well… that's a more difficult question. I mean with Alice it was just… she made my heart flutter and speed up and do weird things. It's a bit hard to explain but it's one of those feelings where you feel nauseous and content at the same time… or… like… happy as well.”

 

“Oh…”

 

“Yeah”

 

“Well… how do you distinguish that from any other kinda like?”

 

“You'll be able to tell. What is this about though?”

 

“I don't know. I was mostly just wondering… for future reference…”

 

“You like Rori don't you?”

 

“This conversation is now over.”

 

Sans messaged him back a time or two after that, but he chose to ignore it. That was a subject he didn't wanna break yet. He focused on his cooking for a while, and thought on what was going with his own personal feelings. In the time that he’d known Rori, he had gotten to really like him. He wasn't quite sure how much… but it was a new experience that he hadn't had before. But he was excited to find out where it would go and what would happen. He wondered if Rori felt the same.

 

_______________________

 

The bath was nice and peaceful. I stayed in until the water started getting cold,  Then wrapped a towel around myself and grabbed my clothes. From there I poked my head out to see if anyone was there, then made it for my room. Luckily it wasn't too far from the bathroom, but even still with the ledge being open to the rest of the house I didn't want to risk it. When I got to the room I dropped the towel and got dressed, checking my phone. A message from Sans, and a message from Alice… They were both about how I was doing in the new house. Sans’ had a winky face with it… that was suspicious. Those two were up to something for sure.    
  
I decided to ignore it for the time being, electing to instead get dressed so I could find out what that delicious smell was. I decided to get into my own pajamas. They were also fleece pajama pants, although mine were grey with white skulls on them (Papyrus absolutely loved them), with a plain black shirt. I put on my glasses and tried to make them sit straight on my face, but that wasn’t a possibility. Satisfied with my look, as minimal as it was, I walked out and followed my nose to the kitchen. When I got there I saw Ralsei putting something into the oven. I poked my head around the corner and smirked at him. “Whatcha doooooin?” I asked as innocently as I could, which wasn’t that innocent to be perfectly honest with you.   
  
“Finishing up with dinner. It’s in the oven and it has to stay there for a good little while. For now, go sit on the couch. I’ve got a plan for you.”   
  
My interest was piqued, and my curiosity ran ramshod around my mind. My thoughts went through everything for what he had planned. Were we going to watch a movie? Maybe play a game of Mario party or something along those lines? Kiss a little? I blinked. Where the hell did that thought come from? Time to suppress that like I did with most things that I didn’t fully understand or want to deal with. I shrugged “Alright. Sounds good to me.” and left the kitchen doorway to go sit down on the couch. After a moment, Ralsei came out with a plate of cookies, and boy did they look good. He set them down on the table and I stared at them greedily, then I looked at him. He stared back, a bit of expectation in his eyes.   
  
“Well?”   
  
I raised an eyebrow. “Well what?”   
  
“Go ahead and eat one. I made them for you, after all.”   
  
I mentally cursed. Of course, he had mentioned that earlier. I guess my time in the bath had led me to forget about that a bit. “Oh! R-right…” I reached over and grabbed a cookie. I’m not a snob or anything, I’m pretty big on food in general, so cookies were almost always accepted, especially if they were oatmeal cookies. That being said, I was a small bit nervous. Ralsei, for all his good traits, was incredibly new to cooking and baking, so while I believed in him… I still had some minor worries about it. Regardless I took a bite just like I would with any cookie and found it… absolutely delicious. I was tempted to pick up the whole plate and chow down on it but I figured that would be rude. I made a small noise of happiness, that ended up sounding a bit like a squeak, and Ralsei beamed.   
  
“It’s good?” He asked nervously

 

“It’s absolutely wonderful Ralsei! Thank you for this, truly.”   
  
“Of course. I’m just happy you like it. Um… I also… while you were in there… picked out a movie to watch, if you were willing.”   
  
I looked over at him and took another bite. I didn’t normally watch movies, I was more of a youtube and chill kind of person, but there were definitely a few that I liked. I swallowed my cookie piece and nodded. “For sure. Colour me excited. I can’t wait to see what you picked.” It would be a true test of our friendship at the current point if he could find a movie that I liked. I wasn’t lying: I truly was excited to see what he picked.   
  
He picked up the remote and turned on the TV. Shortly after we were watching Atlantis, one of my favourite movies of all time, and one of the most underrated ones, along with Treasure Planet. I did my best to not talk through the movie but it was hard at certain points. We got about halfway through before I finally piped up, a lot longer than I normally went.   
  
“You know… I don’t know why Milo doesn’t just tell Kida that he likes her.”   
  
Ralsei blinked “Well maybe he’s just nervous…”   
  
I sighed “I get that, believe me I do. Admitting you like someone is one of the hardest parts of life. But I will always stand by the fact that being nervous is a bit silly. I mean don’t get me wrong, I do it too. Like… I get nervous and anxious real easy but I wish I wasn’t because it’s a silly way to do it. I wish we were able to just walk up to people and be like ‘Hey, I think you’re really cool, I like you a lot, maybe we could hang out or something...’ then go on a few dates and go from there. If you like each other then it turns out for the best. If you end up not liking each other than there’s nothing lost because you’re able to just move on… ya know?”   
  
Ralsei seemed to think on my words for a bit, watching the movie. At some point he had ended up pulling his legs up on the couch, putting them off to the side. I had to admit, it was a little weird to look over and see what could only be described as Goat Feet on the couch next to me. I don’t know why, but the goat monsters didn’t have hooves, instead they had fur covered feet, not unlike cat paws, with claws on the end of them. It was interesting. I had no clue why I had dedicated this much thought to this subject but here we are. My mind wanders a lot.

 

“Hmm… Hey uh Rori?” He looked over at me and I looked back, with a fair amount of cookie in my mouth. For fear of being rude I made an inquisitive noise, instead of speaking.   
  
“I think…” the alarm on his phone went off and he and I both jumped. He let out a little squeak as he got up to go check on whatever it was he was making and I was left hanging and confused. I hated when questions get interrupted, it was a huge pet peeve of mine, especially since it left me hanging and wondering for a long time what the next words out of their mouths were going to be. I especially hated it in books and movies. It felt like lazy story-telling to put off an important subject for the sake of audience subversion to keep them reading to see the final result of the question that never was. There was, of course, a scientific reason for this, a desire our brains have to have things finished… but still, it was annoying as hell. No amount of science could prevent it from being so.   
  
Ralsei took a little while to get back but when he did it was so worth it. He brought out two plates filled with enchiladas, my favourite meal. I practically bounced on the couch as he brought it out. “Are those enchiladas?! You really are the best!”   
  
He blushed a bit at that but put down the plates and forks regardless. He sat in his old spot and put the plate on his lap. He wasn’t too strict on where we ate, not caring if it was on the couch or at the table just as long as I made sure I ate on a regular basis, and honestly, I couldn’t care less where I ate. Food is food, so naturally I picked up the plate and sat it on my lap. I cut a piece off and let it cool before popping it in my mouth. A small smile crept across my face a moment later. “Mmmm just like Mom made them. I take it you used her recipe?”   
  
Ralsei nodded “it was on a loose paper in the book and had a star on it, I figured that meant that it was something you really liked… So I made it.”   
  
“Well it’s damn near perfect Ralsei, you’re an excellent cook.” I took another bite and chewed it over. “You know, I always told my mom I’d marry a gal that can make this as well as she could.” And it was true. Of course, I had grown over time, realized a few things about myself, so on so forth, but the point was still there. Some day, I’d find someone that likes me for me, and I’d see if I could get them to make those enchiladas, and if they could I’d put a ring on their finger as soon as possible.

 

He looked down at his plate. “Oh… Alright, well I’m glad I could make them well…” He took a bite and then looked back up at the TV.

 

I thought on it then remembered we were discussing something. “Oh hey Rals, you were going to say something?”   
  
“Oh… I-I… Forgot what it was. Guess it wasn’t that important.”   
  
Something was wrong, and I could tell immediately. I had only known him for a little while, but people were pretty easy to read when you spend all your time taking care of them. I reached over and put a hand on his shoulder. “Hey… What’s wrong mate?”   
  
He looked at me seemed to think on it for a little bit, before giving a big smile. “I’m okay, No need to worry yourself.” He then continued eating and watching the movie. I didn’t believe him, not even a little bit… but I didn’t want to push the issue. If he wanted to talk to me about it, he’d talk to me in his own time. Though I was wondering if I did something wrong. It was such a sudden shift that it concerned me.   
  
We continued eating, occasionally talking or joking around, even going through and watching another movie, Liar Liar, a classic comedy. However, even with the laughing and joking I could still tell there was something wrong. He kept checking his phone periodically after our conversation and looking a bit concerned. After the movie, Ralsei told me he was going to go for a walk. I asked him if he wanted me to go along with him, it was getting late and you really didn’t want him going places on his own. But he told me no, and said he was going to be meeting up with a friend on the way out. I nodded and he went upstairs. When he came back down he was in his green hat, a green shirt with a heart on it, I had no clue what his obsession with hearts was, but to each his own, and a pair of jeans. I had told him a few days ago that he should probably get a normal sized shirt and a proper pair of pants. He didn’t fully understand why but I assured him it would help him out at least somewhat. He didn’t like them as much as his robe, so I didn’t force him to wear them or anything, it was his life after all. Regardless, I figured it would behoove him to have a pair around somewhere for just in case purposes. He waved at me as he passed, and left the house. I sighed and sent a message to Sans.   
  
“Ralsei is going out, if you happen to see him keep an eye on him? I imagine he can take care of himself but still… It makes me nervous when he goes out at night…”   
  
“Understood bro, I’ll keep an eyesocket out for your little buddy there.”   
  
“Thank you Sans. I’ll get you a bottle of ketchup.”   
  
“Cool bro, That’ll be enough to make me mustard up the energy.”   
  
“Dear fucking god Sans that was bad.”


	5. Ralsei's worries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ralsei goes to get some motherly advice from a familiar face

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter this one, I know believe me I do, but it's an inbetween chapter. But hey this one is aaaaaall Ralsei so never fear.

The guidance of a good mother figure shines through you.

 

Ralsei pulled his hat close. Checking his phone it was only about 7:30 or so, which meant that he should be able to make it in time. He ended up outside Toriel’s house. He barely knocked on the door when it was opened, and Frisk sat on the other side, Toriel following after. Frisk signed something happily, but Ralsei couldn’t fully understand it. Rori had encouraged Ralsei to learn sign language, and he was actually starting to pick it up, but it was still difficult for him. He looked to Toriel a bit confused. Normally he had Rori to translate.   
  
“They say that they are happy to see you here, and so am I.” She gave him a kind smile. He loved being here, she always made him feel like he was at home and… he didn’t know why but he felt like he could talk to her as if she was his mother. “Come on in, Can I get you anything to eat? Maybe a bit of pie?”   
  
You gave a small smile. “That would be wonderful Toriel, thank you.” He walked in and was led to take a seat on the couch by Frisk, who pulled out a board and started to write on it.   
  
**You look upset**

 

He sighed and thought on it. “Yeah… I don’t fully know… I don’t think I’m entirely upset, or that I should be? But I am. Which is why I came over here.”   
  
**Did Rori do something?**

 

He looked at Frisk and smiled. “Uh… Kind of. I think? I’m not sure how to interpret what was said.”   
  


**Oh… Mom might be able to help you!**

 

As if on queue, Toriel returned from the kitchen with a plate of pie. He loved her pie, it felt like home. She sat down on the chair and looked at him. “So how may I help you my child?”   
  
He took a bite of the pie and thought on your words very carefully. “Well… I wasn’t sure how much you could help me, but Sans told me you might be able to… Um... “ He sighed and looked down. “There’s someone that I think I like… a lot… and I went to go tell them about it… or talk to them about it… and I was making enchiladas, and as I was about to say it the timer went off for it. When I came back and he tried it he mentioned how when he was younger he’d always tell his mom that if he ever found someone that could make the enchiladas like his mom he’d marry her… and that comment wouldn’t be bad but…”   
  
“He specifically said her and that has you worried?”

 

Ralsei nodded and looked at her. “That’s a pretty good indicator that he wouldn’t be interested right?”   
  
Toriel thought on it for a bit. “I think… what you need to do is discuss this with him. I’m sure that if you were to lay out your feelings, plain and clear, he’d be able to give you a clear yes or no answer.”   
  
“But… what if he says no? That might make life a bit difficult, if we’re living with each other.”   
  
“Then that is a risk you will have to take, for if he answers with yes… would that not make life even better for you? After all, love is what we all search for in this world.”   
  
Frisk wrote on his board  **I bet you he will say yes if you ask him.**

 

He smiled at Frisk and ruffled his hair. “A-alright… I’ll try that… What’s the worst that could happen? R-right?”   
  
Toriel nodded. “Of course. Always hope for the best, Ralsei. You’ll be a lot happier if you do.”   
  
**And stay determined! I bet it could be wonderful!**

 

He appreciated the support, and knew that he could use that to give him the courage he needed to do what needed to be done. With pie in your belly and determination in your heart you stood up, bade farewell and went home.


	6. The Newest Relationship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ralsei runs into a spot of trouble. Rori has to help him out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another longish one because I wanted feels. Let's see where this goes.

The hope that you can fix your mistake, even if you don’t know what it was, fills you with determination.

 

I finished setting everything up and smiled, looking back on my work. I had cleaned up the apartment while Rals was gone, not too hard of a prospect seeing as how we kept it pretty clean in general, and put up some candles. They were vanilla scented. I don’t know why but that was Ralsei’s favourite smell, as far as I knew. He always seemed to enjoy when I baked using vanilla. I was also hoping it would endear him to me so that when he came back I wouldn’t have to worry about it. That was when I got the text from Sans.   
  
“Hey bro, Rals just left Toriel’s house. He looks a bit worried. Maybe you should go and get him… it’s getting late anyways.”    
  
“Thanks man. I appreciate ya.” I look around and blow out the candles, no sense in leaving them lit when I was going to leave the house in a second. I threw on my shoes and my jacket before grabbing my skateboard and hoping that the sidewalks were salted recently. Sure enough, they were good enough to ride on and be safe. I got about half way between my place and Toriel’s when I heard a familiar voice.    
  
“Th-there’s no reason to do this… I promise I’m not in your way.”   
  
It was Ralsei’s voice, and he sounded scared. You got off your board and grabbed it, holding it with both hands, with the wheels outward. The voice I heard in response was deep, gruff, angry.   
  


“You got in my way the moment you decided to exist, monster. Your kind don’t belong here.” There was a laugh from what sounded like another participant in the party. I growled. I couldn’t bear to hear this anymore. Moving sneakily I crept up into the alley, turns out I was right. There were two of them, one in front of Ralsei, the other just behind him. They pissed me off immediately.   
  
“I-I don’t… I-I’m sorry… I can’t control that… though…” He looked terrified, and he couldn’t see me at all and that made me feel a bit bad, but if I revealed myself I’d lose the element of surprise.

 

“Well then how’s about we give you a lesson in how to change your ways, by sending you back to where you came from, huh?” He pulled out a knife and took a step towards Ralsei. That was enough of that. I lifted the board and brought it down, wheels first on the head of the man closest to me. He crumpled almost immediately and I made a mental note to thank Undyne for teaching me what I was about to do. The other turned towards me and I let out a low, menacing growl. “Leave… the goat… alone. Or else you’re gonna encounter a real fucking crummy juncture.”   
  
He looked at his buddy on the ground and scowled. “A dirty monster sympathiser huh? You’re no better than them.” He then came at me. I barely had time to lift up my board to block his stab. The knife went right through and I smirked before twisting it hard, his hand twisting along with it. Why does everyone forget to let go of the knife when it first gets stuck? Regardless, I heard a snap when I did so. He screamed in pain and let go of the knife. I followed up by bringing the board up and snapping it in half against his head. He fell to the ground next to his friend and I sighed.

 

“I liked that board damn you.” I walked over his body and looked down at Ralsei. I couldn’t fully tell what that expression was. It looked like a mixture of fear and gratitude. I hoped it wasn’t fear of me. Regardless, I needed to get him home… then worry about how he was feeling about this whole ordeal. I put an arm around his shoulder and bent down a bit, putting the other behind his knees and picked him up. He was incredibly light, or so I thought… Then again… between the training with Undyne and the necessity of picking up people with my job and all, picking up him was practically like picking up a pillow. He almost immediately wrapped his arms around my neck, and put his head against my chest. I started running. There was no way I was going to let him get into any more trouble, and all that this little event told me was that I was right in being uncertain of letting him go out in the middle of the night by himself. He was his own person, and I get that, and I’d never stop him from being that, but I cared about him now, and I got the impression that if anything happened to him I’d never be able to live with myself.

 

It took a lot longer to get home than it took me to get there, After all I wasn’t skating home and now I was carrying someone on the way home. It made me glad that Undyne trained me a lot in carrying things for long distances. It was just after she had seen Mulan that she had started training me, so I got the whole nine yards. Everything down to being as swift as the coursing river and so on. When we finally got home I set Ralsei down and unlocked the door, then took his hand and led him inside. When we got in I closed and locked the door, then gestured at the couch. “Sit.” Ralsei sat as I headed to the kitchen. In short order I had a cup of hot cocoa and marshmallows. I walked out and put it down on the coffee table in front of him, then sat down next to him. We sat there for a few moments in silence, not saying anything. Then… he finally spoke up.   
  


“Rori… I didn’t mean t-” He didn’t get to finish.   
  


I cut him off by pulling him into a hug, and holding him close. “It wasn’t your fault.” I held him close and after a moment, I felt him shaking. I took off his hat and ran my hand through his… hair? I wasn’t sure what to call the tufts on the top of his head but regardless that’s what I ran my hands through. 

 

And I let him cry. He needed it. It was a traumatic experience, and I understood that. We sat there like that for a good while. He needed to let it out and I needed to let him. When he was finally done he pulled back and looked at me.

 

I reached up and wiped the tears from his face, trying to hide the concern from my face and, more than likely, failing. “Hey… You’re okay now. i’ll never let you be hurt okay?”   
  


He nodded “I-I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t there…”   
  
“Hey… don’t think about that okay? I’ll always be there. It’s over now, you’re home and you’re with me and you’re safe.”   
  
He looked up at me, his head tilted downward but his eyes saying everything.

 

“Why did you leave anyway? I know I said I wouldn’t pry into your business but… It’s kinda important here… I guess if you don’t want to tell me you don’t have to…”   
  
He took a deep breath, and collected his thoughts. “I was… talking to Toriel for a bit… I needed some advice.”

  
I felt a bit hurt. I knew I wouldn’t be his go to for everything but I’d hoped that I had showed him that I could be trusted with most if not all things. “Oh… About what?”   
  
He looked away and grabbed the cocoa, taking a sip then staring at it. I wondered if I should move my hand from his shoulder, but decided against it. He needed the comfort and this was the best way I could think of to provide it.

 

“I… was asking about you… actually…”   
  
I tilted my head. “What do you mean? I’d hope that you would come to me if you needed advice about… ya know… me… I’m kinda the best source of knowledge on that one…”

 

He sighed “Rori… Do you… Like anyone?”

 

My eyes rounded. “Uh…. Well… I mean yeah… I like someone… Right now…” I blushed a bit. That was not the question I was expecting, if I could be perfectly honest.

 

“I mean… do you really like anyone? In the way that Sans and Alice like each other.”

 

“I know… that’s what I meant too…”   
  
“Oh… And are… do they… are you…” he looked frustrated, like he was stressed to phrase this correctly.

 

“Hey, Ralsy, take your time man there’s no need to get this out now…”   
  


He took another deep breath. “Are your romantic interests… purely in… you know... “

 

I had a feeling I knew what he was asking with this, though I couldn’t be fully sure where he was going with it. “Females? No.” I shrugged and sighed. “I haven’t been only interested in women for a long time. Took me a long while to realize that though. Is this about what I said earlier? About the enchiladas?”   
  
“W-well… I just… you said her and it just… confused me… because… I don’t know maybe I’m being stupid.”

 

I eyed him suspiciously, then put my hand under his chin, pulling him up to look at me. I gave him a kind, yet stern look. “Ralsy, what was the question you were going to ask earlier?” I had a feeling that these two things correlated.

 

“I…” he was blushing. I wasn’t sure what was going through his head at that moment, but I hoped it was good things. “I was wondering… if maybe you wanted… to possibly…”   
  


I blinked and realized where he was going and let out a small “oh…” That was a heavy hitting question, but I suppose it made sense. I had basically outright told him how I felt that kind of stuff should be done earlier. If I was right, and I was taking a semi big leap of logic here to arrive at that conclusion, he was simply following suit with what I had mentioned earlier, and a good part of me was actually really hoping that he was going where I thought he was going.

 

“You’re… are you asking me on a date Rals?”

 

He looked away. I had his face in my hand but I couldn’t do shit about his eyes. “I m-mean… if you’re okay with that… I suppose…”

 

I smiled softly and then chuckled. He looked back at me and pouted.

 

“You… could just say no… you don’t have to laugh at me.”

 

I looked at him and felt a little bad, that’s not what I meant at all. So, instead of trying to backpedal, I gave him the most definite answer I could. I moved my hand to rest on his cheek and gave him a gentle kiss on the lips. He let out a small bleat in surprise, it was really cute, before leaning into it. After a moment I pulled away and smiled.    
  
“I promise you I wasn’t laughing at you. I just… for the past week I’ve been fighting these feelings in my chest… Not wanting to act on them… and turns out that you felt the same way? We could have easily dodged all that inner turmoil pretty easily”

 

He had a slightly drunk smile on his face. I had to wonder if that was his first kiss, and if so I really hope he enjoyed it. The circumstances surrounding it were already bad, if he didn’t enjoy it that would just add insult to injury for the poor goat boy. He snapped to attention after a second and nodded. “I… didn’t know, though it does explain a few things I suppose… Is that a yes though?”   
  
I smiled “Of course it is. I’d love to go on a date with you Ralsy. It’d be wonderful” he turned and curled against me. It wasn’t long before I was laying on the couch, and he was lying on top of me. It was the most comfortable I’d ever been. My dreams were filled with a smiling fluffy boy.


	7. Sixteen Candles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ralsei and Rori get ready for their date!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's amazing the things that get put into stories while talking to my mom randomly.

The anticipation of a better future, It fills you with determination.

 

I woke up the next morning with Ralsei still curled up on my chest. I was confused for a moment. I was always a bit lethargic in the mornings and fairly forgetful but it never lasted long. It only took a few moments before I remembered, and a blush came across my face. Regardless, I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him close, giving him a gentle kiss on the top of his head. A slight chore considering his pink horns, but still well worth it.

“Ralsy, time to wake up...” I almost didn’t wanna wake him up. He looked so cute and peaceful laying there, and he apparently decided he didn’t want to wake up either. He nuzzled further into my chest and kept his eyes closed, letting out a small noise. We were up pretty late last night, I supposed. But when I checked my phone it was about 11 and sleeping in any later would probably be a bad idea. It didn’t help that I had to use the bathroom.

“Raaaaals I have to peeeee wake uuup.” I nudged his shoulder a bit. He groaned.

“But I’m comfortable, and warm... “

I had to admit… He was incredibly warm. And this was definitely one of the more comfortable ways I’ve woken up, and under any other circumstances I would love to stay there like that for longer… But that whole bladder thing put a real damper on being romantic. “Rals I will come back but if you don’t let me up then we’re going to have a bad time.”

He looked up at me and pouted. I kissed him gently, and he rolled off to the side, letting me up. Regretting the necessity of the situation I sighed and got up. When I had finished with my activities I came back to an awake, but sleepy, Ralsei. He was sitting up and rubbing his eyes, his glasses on the table. I sat down next to him and put an arm around him, pulling him close. “Told you I’d be back didn’t I?”

He looked up at me and smiled “You did. I should have believed you.”

“Yes you should have. Now… we gotta figure out what we’re doing for our date. I’ve got an idea but I wanna hear yours first.”

He blushed and looked down at his hand… paws? Whatever. “Well I don’t… Know… exactly… I’ve never been on a date… before. I’ve got some books on it though.”

I sighed “I swear to god if you pull out the book that Pap-” I was interrupted by him reaching over and pulling out the ‘Guide to Dating’ book that Papyrus carried on him. I put my head in my hands for a moment before grabbing the book and throwing it to the side.

He had a small freak out about that, reaching towards the book even though it was already well out of reach. “What… what’s wrong with that book?”

I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “That book is terrible. It doesn’t give any actual advice on how to date anyone, and to make it even worse, the minimal amount of advice that is in there is absolutely terrible. Dating isn’t a science, you can’t make measurements and get it perfect. You have to go by what your heart is telling you,” I put my hand on his chest as I said this. “And let it guide you. If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be, if not then you’ll know immediately.”

  
He thought on this for a second, then looked to the guide, then back to me. If it’s one thing I had learned about Ralsei in this time of knowing him, it’s that he had a great fondness for books and certainty. He… had a small problem with things that he couldn’t read up on in some capacity or another. I found it cute, honestly. “O-okay… then… Um… most people go to get food on dates right? Or to watch a movie? We could do that”

I nodded “There ya go. How’s about this. We will go get some food, then we will see where the day takes us. After all, we’ve got a long time to do things today. The whole day even.”

He smiled at me and wrapped his arms around me. It filled me with joy whenever he did that, and I had a feeling that this might end up being a pretty good relationship. I hoped it would anyways.

“Alright. For now, go get cleaned up, change into some clean clothes and all that and I’ll do the same. I’d rather not go on a date wearing my pajamas you know?”

He nodded and stood up, then stopped and looked at me. “Can… Can I have another kiss before we do?”

That took me back a bit. I certainly wasn’t expecting it. In response I stood up, put a hand on his cheek, bent down and kissed him gently. He melted a little bit, and that made me feel elated. When I pulled back him and I looked each other in the eyes. “You never have to ask to kiss me, I’ll always be willing to do it. Now,” i kissed his forehead, “go get dressed. We’re going to go have some fun.”

  
He nodded, blushing deeply before running off up the stairs. It was adorable. I picked up my phone and realized I had a text from my friend back home. I answered it while getting ready.

“Hey man how’s it been? How’s the new move?”

“Hey Riley, it’s been pretty good. Got into my own place, started work again. Going on a date tonight actually.” Riley had been what I’d consider a platonic soulmate for a good while now. He and my sister were good friends in highschool, and we hated each other then, but now we were two peas in a pod. I always found it funny how things worked out that way.

“You already got a date? Damn dude, with who?”

I blushed a bit as I pulled on my pants. “Uh… Promise not to laugh or anything?”

“I make no promises, go ahead. You know I don’t judge.”

I sent him a picture I had taken of Ralsei earlier in the week while I was teaching him to cook. He was smiling nervously, and holding a cake that ended up being absolutely amazing. I figured what better way to teach someone to cook than with desserts? Everyone likes desserts.

“You’re dating a goat boy? I mean that’s fine and all, I just wouldn’t have taken you for the type. You usually had a different set of standards.”

“Hey. My standards aren’t low, they’re just broad. Besides he’s really nice and cute, doesn’t matter if he’s a monster.”

“Oh no believe me I get it, you do you man. I’m happy for you, truly. I just wasn’t expecting it. He is pretty cute, I’ll give you that.”

I smiled. If there was ever anyone that I could go to for validation, it was Riley. He made me feel at ease, and knowing that he approved was a definite plus. “You should come up here someday, spend a week or something. Bring Dawn and the baby. I think y’all would like him.” They had moved to Washington shortly before I had moved up here, so thankfully the trip wouldn’t be nearly as long as it was for me, which made it significantly more likely to happen.

“For sure! I’ll talk to Dawn and we’ll see what we can do.”

I nodded, pleased before finishing getting dressed and taking a picture. I was wearing a black t-shirt, jeans, my boots, an open jacket and a leather jacket over that. I had even taken the time out to trim my beard. Not entirely, but enough that I looked more dignified, and less scruffy. I sent the picture to him “How do I look? Good for a first date?”

“I mean you’re wearing my jacket, and that always made you look good, boo. You nervous?”

“Well with this being my first proper date with a guy.... A little yeah.”

“Just take a deep breath. I highly doubt he can be too much different from a date with anyone else. Just be yourself, that tends to work out for you.”

I nodded “Sweet. Thanks mate. I’ll catch you in a bit, I gotta get going if we’re gonna be able to do anything more than just get a meal.”

With that I straightened myself out and, yet again, attempted to straighten my glasses. It didn’t work, of course, but I had to make the effort. I did the normal morning stuff, brush teeth, use bathroom, put on deodorant and, just for good measure, put on some cologne. Simple stuff, nothing too terribly overpowering. I just wanted to make sure things looked good for this, honestly. Truthfully, I wasn’t lying when I told Riley I was nervous. I was a wreck right now but I had to hide it as best as I could. Ralsei would be nervous too and I wanted to put him at ease. I ran a comb through my hair, trying to get it to look somewhat managed. Even with water, it still poked up at the back. Whatever. I could deal with that shit later. I let out a sigh and, as satisfied as I could be with my appearance, stepped out of the bathroom. I walked down to the living room and grabbed my wallet and keys from the catch-all I had set up by the door, then waited for my date to emerge.

Emerge he did. Say what you would about Ralsei, he knew how to make an entrance, even if unintentionally. He came out without his hat, something I wasn’t expecting. He had tamed his hair as best as he could, but just like me he had a hard time getting it all to stay in one spot. I liked it, honestly. It added character. He had on a deep red thick scarf. I loved when he wore that scarf it looked so adorable on him, especially if you made him flustered, he tended to hide in it a little bit and it just made my heart flutter. He was wearing a big t-shirt that hung down below his waist, a light green with a pink heart on the chest, right above where his heart would normally be. I wondered if he did that for my benefit. I had never seen him wearing that shirt, but pink was my favourite colour, and I tried to think back to if I had ever told him that, or if he was going off of instinct. If he was, then he had some damn good instincts. Underneath the shirt he wore dark black jeans that hugged his form quite nicely. It gave me a really good view of his legs which were just… spot on beautiful. You could easily say that I was impressed, and falling fast for him.

He had a hand on the banister as he walked down. It was one of those moments where I knew he was walking normally down the stairs, but to me time slowed down considerably. I felt like I was in a high school based sitcom, where the male is waiting for his date to prom to come down the stairs and when he sees her time slows down and the edges of the screen get rose tinted. The advantage was, my parents wouldn’t be here to take awkward pictures of us before we left. I’d be lying if I said that ‘Kiss Me’ by Sixpence None the Richer wasn’t playing through my head as he walked down the stairs. I was happy, and maybe feeling a bit mushy in that moment. So sue me.

He got up to me and I had to pick my jaw up off the ground before he thought he had done something wrong. I didn’t manage to regroup myself fast enough, however, and he buried into the scarf a little bit.

“D… Does it look bad?”

I shook my head, and when my voice came out it was low and quiet. “No… You look perfect Ralsy. Absolutely breathtaking.”

He beamed up at me, a blush crossing over his cheeks. “Oh! Thank you! You look really wonderful yourself! I didn’t know you could clean up so well.”

“Well to be fair,” I gave him a smirk “You’ve only ever seen me after I’ve gotten home from work or been tired.”

He thought on it. “I suppose you’re right. Are you ready to go?”

I nodded “Let’s be went.” I pulled out the keys and held the door open for him. He walked out ahead of me and I locked the door behind us. It wasn’t long before we were in the car and driving towards our destination. A sense of peace filled my heart as we went.


	8. The Nice Drive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What's Rals thinking while they drive to the restaurant? If only Rori could read this story and find out, it might make things a bit easier later on in life...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it is... 11 at night, I've got work in... 7 hours... So I wanted to upload this before I go to bed so y'all had it for the morning. I'll finish typing up chapter 9 tomorrow after work. It's a long one for sure...
> 
> Also if you go back and notice changes in the story previously it's because I got an editor to tell me to wisen the hell up and fix my grammar. It's pretty great.

The power of good food and a wonderful partner shines through you.

He had been stressing out about this date since he had woken up, and it was one of the few things that filled his brain as they drove. He was consumed with thoughts of what they would be doing, where they were going and what they’d do afterwards. He wondered if there were potentially any social norms he had to abide by. He hadn’t ever been on a date before so he was reaching in the dark for the hope of not messing up on the date. He had searched for a good while for something good to wear, and had come up with the outfit he had. Rori had encouraged him to get some more modern clothes when the two of them had moved in together, even went in and bought some for him. He knew Rori liked his normal clothes, something told him that much was true. Maybe it was the look he gave Ralsei whenever the goat boy was wearing them. There was definitely interest in there, but regardless, Rori was looking out for him. Which brought him to his next all consuming thought.

Last night was terrifying. He didn’t like being cornered like that, not that he could do much about it. Sure he had a fair bit of magic in his arsenal, but most of it was to help people, or to pacify them, and those two guys were very intent upon not being pacified. He was lucky Rori showed up when he did, and was kind of curious as to what made him do so. You were scared and trapped, then out of nowhere there he was. He wondered where Rori had come from as well, he hadn’t seen him come up behind the other two at all. Did he have some magic of his own? Humans did have a certain amount of magic, of course. Something that Sans liked to call “Determination” which allowed their souls to do amazing and astounding things, and looking over at Rori, singing along with the music as he drove, he could tell that Rori was full of the stuff. It was truly astounding to think about, if he was being perfectly honest, that a human with very little training could muster up that much courage and power within himself. He also wondered where Rori had learned to fight like that. He didn’t think Rori had any training, he seemed so calm and peaceful most times, but there he was, able to pull astounding things when he needed to, and then the way that Rori just… picked him up without a word and took him home. He remembered the look on Rori’s face in that moment pretty clearly. Anger, determination and a bit of fear and concern danced across the man’s face so clearly it wasn’t remotely funny… But it was odd, regardless. How could someone be so calm in such a high tension? Maybe He’d have to talk to Sans about it, later. Find out what was going on there. Sans seemed to have a way to tell how people were on the inside, considerably better than he could. He was pulled out of his reveries when Rori looked over and smiled at him, then he realized he was staring.

  
“You alright there, Ralsy?”

Oh gosh he loved when Rori called him that. He had started doing it almost immediately and it made him feel… Comfortable? At first the feeling confused him, he wasn’t sure how to respond to it, but over the week He had grown used to it, and even looked forward to hearing it. Rori had this way of speaking… his voice wasn’t… low, per say, except for when he just woke up or when he was really tired, but it was soothing. Save for last night… His voice had been actually kinda scary and growly when he talked to the other guys… It made his heart do weird flips when he knew Rori’s voice was doing that because of him, because he was protecting him….

“Oh. I’m okay, I’m just thinking. I’m excited for our date but I have to admit this is all new to me, so I’m curious to see how it’s going to end up going.”

Rori nodded and looked back out the front window, watching everything that went by. He then put a hand on Ralsei’s leg and ran his thumb idly back and forth. It made Ralsei shiver a bit, but not in an unpleasant way. “I get that, believe me I do. Just relax, okay? It’s gonna be a good date, I promise you. I wouldn’t have it any other way for my best goat.”

Ralsei looked down at the hand, and put his own over it. It was warm and comforting. “Okay… I’m looking forward to it, truly.” And he meant it. He was extremely excited. It was going to be a good day, you could tell. It wasn’t long until he started singing along with Rori. He didn’t know all the words to all the songs, but the ones he did know, he gladly took part in. After he started singing, Rori looked at him a bit shocked, then smiled bright and kept singing. He had to admit, Rori had a good voice. He had told Ralsei that he didn’t sing often, but he had heard Rori singing throughout the house while he cooked, or cleaned… whichever worked for that day. His favourite was when Rori would sing “Can’t Help Falling in Love”. It seemed to be Rori’s go to song, and while Ralsei didn’t know it well before, he had every word memorized. It was quickly becoming his favourite song. The restaurant came up too quickly, and it honestly made him a bit sad. He was having a good time, it was so nice and peaceful, but now there was a new juncture for them to travel. The next step in the day, as it were. He could barely hide his excitement. They were standing in front of a really nice looking restaurant called Pylos. He looked at Rori with uncertainty. This place looked really fancy, and he had a bit of nervousness about fancy places. They tended to be… mean…

Naturally, Rori took his hand and smiled. “Hey, it’s all good. Remember what I said? It’s going to be a good day. I promise you that.” Reassured and now leaning into Rori a bit, he followed into the restaurant, ready for the best date of his life, even if it was his first.


	9. We Won’t Be Having the Goat, Thanks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rori and Ralsei finally go on the date! They cover a lot of subjects and have many happy times.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one took me a while to get through, it's one of the longest ones I've done so far. I hope y'all enjoy reading it as much as I do. Also we have 8 kudos so like... thank you guys! That's awesome as all hell to me, I'm glad y'all are enjoying it.

The prospect of good food and awkward situations fills you with determination.

I walked into the restaurant with Ralsei in tow against me. It felt right, honestly. It made me happier than I had been in a long time. Things had been rough lately… it was part of why I moved here. I had been happier when I visited here than I had ever been in Arizona. It was a nice place, and I liked it. The lack of cold was certainly a contributing factor for sure, but here I had a good amount of friends that never ceased to keep a huge smile on my face, and now I had Ralsei, who did his best to make sure that the happiness I displayed on the outside 90% of the time was felt on the inside too. I’m not going to say that he was a magical cure all for depression, but he certainly helped mine.

We walked up to the hosts station to be greeted by a bored looking cat person. He seemed like he wanted to be doing anything other than sitting here hosting for us, but the second we walked up to him he put on a big smile that I could tell was fairly disingenuous. Ralsei bought it, and smiled back. I decided to take point on the whole speaking aspect of things.

  
“Table for two please.”

He nodded “You got it. Let me just get one set up for you real quick. I hope they have one because otherwise it would be a really long wait, and you two look like you don’t want that.” His voice sounded… sarcastic? I wasn’t sure, but I had been in his position before and I knew how frustrating this kind of job could be, so I let it slide. For all I knew it could be the end of his week, those were always the hardest days.

I smiled at him “Alright, thank you sir.”

He took off and went around the restaurant for a bit. I saw him putter about for a bit before coming back, looking a bit haggard, angry and… was that a small amount of fear I saw painted on his face? I think it was. It was like he thought that I was going to yell at him. It was weird, for me anyways, because while I didn’t always look like a warm and inviting person, I had a resting bitch face that could put Robert De Niro to shame at times, I thought I looked pretty happy right now, and having Ralsei next to me had to be helping that a fair amount.

When he spoke, he did so through teeth. “I’m sorry sir, it’s going to be a little wait, we have a few people that are deciding to sit on their drinks and not leave yet.”

I nodded back at him “No worries mon ami, we’re patient. Just let us know when it’s all ready and we can wait over here for the time being, if that’s alright?”

He seemed to visibly relax when he realized I wasn’t going to throttle him for the inconvenience. It made me honestly wonder how nasty the people who normally came here were. Poor guy must have had enough issues already being a host for a high class place like this. Add onto it that he was a monster and… well… that’s just a recipe for disaster and bad reactions to any mistake made during customer service. Though it did make me happy to see that this place hired monsters. There was a fair bit of discrimination in this country over them, which frankly pissed me off. I just hoped they didn’t make it any harder on him.

I led Ralsei off to a bench in the corner and we sat down. He snuggled up next to me and I gave a contented smile, snaking my arm around his shoulders and pulling him close as I did. After a moment I looked up at the TV and smirked. “Oh hey, looks like Mettaton is doing a tour right now…”

He blinked and looked up at the TV too. “Oh hey… I like him. I don’t know how I’d feel about meeting him, but he seems pretty nice…”

“He’s alright. A little brash, but what star isn’t? He cares about his friends at the very least so that’s a good thing.”

Ralsei looked at me a bit shocked. “You’ve met Mettaton?”

I shrugged “Well yeah, one of my best friends is married to his creator. He’s come by a few times while I was going over some notes with Alphys on human biology. She’s… trying to improve his body.”

“That’s… impressive actually.”

“Yeah he’s… I dunno. Hanging out with him here and there is good, but I’d hate to work for him or anything like that. The guy’s a bit of a drama queen… and commanding. I’d imagine working for him would be absolutely hell on earth.”

The cat person at the host desk muttered something under his breath that sounded like “You have no idea” before going back to his work.

I blushed a little but smirked regardless. “It’s nothing to me though. I don’t interact with him all too often so I elected to have fun while he was around, and live my life like normal when he’s not.” I shrugged “It’s the best way to see things if you ask me.”

Ralsei nodded, but said nothing. I wondered what he was thinking in that current moment, and said as much. “What’s on your mind love?”

He blinked “Oh! Uh… well… It’s just… You’re full of surprises. I wouldn’t have taken you as the type of person to be able to do… well a lot of the things that have happened recently. This is just one of those things that gets added onto my list of things I like finding out about you.”

I thought on it a bit. “How long is that list so far?”

“Fairly long. You’ve got a fair bit going for you Rori. I’m continuously surprised by your capabilities…” He blushed then looked down at his hands. “Not in a bad way, of course. I suppose that’s just one of the things I’m adjusting to. There’s so much we can learn about each other and so much that we can do together now that a week ago I never thought I’d be eager to do.”

Ralsei was a bit of a shut in, so I could understand that sentiment pretty clearly. I was too, admittedly, but I had come out of my shell a fair bit in the past few years thanks to the inclusion of Undyne, Papyrus and Frisk in my life. They definitely made it hard to keep to yourself. “I get that. I mean if you told me a few weeks ago that I’d be going on a date with the most adorable goat boy in the world, well I wouldn’t have believed you.” he visibly flushed at that, but got that big smile on his face that I so adored. “But hey, that’s what we have now for. I mean the whole point of dating and being together like this is to figure things out about each other, and to get some exposition on our lives before we met. Along with a few other things, of course, like being there for each other and having someone to spend time with… but regardless the point of dating is to be able to figure out more about that person and find out if you’re compatible ya know? That’s what courting is all about.”

He thought on it. “So it’s sort of like we are teaching each other about ourselves?”

“Exactly. Take the time to learn about each other and hope that it turns out well. We’ve sort of lost the art of courting a little while back, and it makes me a bit sad. When you ask someone if they wanna date it always jumps into what used to be called going steady, which doesn’t bother me too much, but it doesn’t give time to get to know that person. I mean hell, biggest reason I’m okay to say that you and I would be going steady is cus I already know you and I get along well, and like each other. Dating makes it a bit different, but that’s why we’re giving it a shot now right?”

He looked back up at me and smiled. “That makes sense… What does going steady mean, though?”

Right… first time dating which means that it was probably his first time of having to worry about the terminology of the situation. “Well.. it means that we’re dedicated to each other. We don’t go on dates with other people so on so forth. To give you an impression, if we were just occasionally going out for food or a movie or whatever… that’d be us just dating. No real commitment there, if I remember correctly. Going steady means that there is that commitment. It’s us making a promise to each other that we’re not going to go on dates with other people, not romantic dates anyways… The line between the two has grown pretty blurred and almost nonexistent. The two terms are starting to become synonymous with each other… but it’s not entirely a bad thing that that happened. It makes life a little bit easier after all.”

“Oh, wait…” he thought on it again “Is that what people mean when they say boyfriend or girlfriend?”

I gave a small noise of confirmation. “Mhm. Like what Sans and Alice are doing. They’re boyfriend and girlfriend, dating through and through. Have been for a good while now, I wonder when they’ll tie the knot, and if they do if I’ll be able to go. I’d hope so. They’ve been such huge helps since I got here, and even before hand.”

  
“And what does tying the knot mean?” He was so eager to learn. It was really cute. I forgot, from time to time, that he was so new to this world and to this terminology as well. I was more than happy to teach him.

“It means getting married. So… Two people that love each other, like truly love each other, can go through a ceremony that… sort of… binds them together? Both legally and spiritually. Basically on the legal side of things it means that they share their assets with each other. It also allows them certain benefits such as adding them as dependents on their taxes which gives them a bigger return and what not. It’s… honestly a complicated process but whatever… And then spiritually it’s… like a binding of the souls. It’s to say basically that you two are soul mates and belong with each other forever. It’s a way to tell the whole universe ‘hey! I found this person, and they make my life complete and they make me happy so I’m going to be with them till the day I die!’ and then the universe can continue being indifferent. That’s how it’s supposed to be anyways, regardless, it’s still a good thing to do. I have a bad habit of crying at weddings though.”

He continued to mull over what I had said for a little while, sitting in silence. I was starting to get worried that maybe I had said something that upset him when he spoke up again. “Hey Rori?”

I looked down at him and smiled “Yes my love?”

“Do you want to ever get married?”

I had to ponder that for a second, watching the TV as I did. It was a bit of a heavy question, for me anyways. I didn’t look back at him when I answered. “It’s… a difficult question for me. I mean I do, don’t get me wrong, but there are a couple of things that make me nervous about it.”

He raised an eyebrow “Like what? If you don’t mind me asking…”

“Well… For starters I’d have to find someone that would want to marry me, and that prospect is hard enough as it is. I can get dates pretty alright… I think so anyways… but once we get into the prospect of the long term it seems as though I just don’t tend to make the cut. Then you add onto it the fact that my family seems to be cursed when it comes to marriage. We haven’t had a single person that I can remember in my family stay in their marriage for a very long time. They end up realizing that they’re unhappy or something is missing, make like a gymnast and split. It’s… honestly pretty depressing if you ask me, which is why I try not to think about it too terribly often. I guess to answer your question, I’d like it if it would happen, but I’m not going to stress myself out over it ya know? Life is too short for me to put myself through that kind of worry.”

He looked confused for a little bit, but hid it shortly afterwards. “Do you think that would happen to us? Splitting up, that is…”

I smiled down at him and kissed his nose. “Well gosh I’d sure hope it didn’t. I mean yeah okay I’m scared that it might but my goal is to make this last as long as possible, and I’ve gotta be perfectly honest with you Ralsy… You’re somethin’ special. Who knows… Maybe you’ll be the one to help me break my curse, yeah?”

He snuggled into my shoulder a bit and nodded. “I think I’d like that. I’m all about breaking curses…”

Well now I was the one blushing. I wanted to say something else, probably a joke to ease the tension a bit. Super serious conversations like this one weren’t exactly my forte, but I was cut off by the host coming up to us with a small smile on his face. This one seemed a lot more genuine.

“Your table is ready sirs. Follow me and I’ll lead you to it.” Sure enough he grabbed two menus, two sets of silverware and led us out to the table. It was a nice booth. I had no clue why they were seating two of us at a 4 person booth but whatever worked for them. Ralsei and I sat across from each other, but I had to admit that I missed his warmth. I hoped beyond hope that I wouldn’t get too dependent on that being there… That’d make work a bit awkward. ‘Hey Rori, why do you have a goat person leaning against you while you’re changing this patient’s brief?’ ‘Well you see sir this is my therapy goat boy. He keeps my right side warm, otherwise I freeze my fucking ass off because this place is a testament to man’s arrogance when it comes to cold.’

I didn’t think it would go over well...

The host nodded when he was satisfied with us sitting down and then spoke again. “Can I get you two anything to drink while you wait?”

I looked at the menu and nodded “Uh… Dr. Pepper please.” I then looked over to Ralsei.

“Huh? Oh! Um… Strawberry lemonade please?”

He nodded before running off to go get them. I raised an eyebrow at Ralsei. “Strawberry lemonade? You’ve been hanging out with Alice haven’t you?”

He blushed a little. “Yeah… why? What’s wrong with strawberry lemonade?”

I smirked back “Nothing at all, my love. I just know that that happens to be one of Alice’s drinks of choice. You certainly didn’t get it from me.”

“It’s a good drink…” he pouted a little bit. I gave a soft smile in return

“Awww babe, don’t worry It is a good drink” I reached out and put my hand on his. He seemed to calm at this, giving me a faint smile back. Our host came back and gave us each our respective drinks.

“Your waiter will be with you in just a second.” Heran off.

I managed to get a thank you out before he left and I think I saw his smile get a little bit bigger. It was nice to see a real smile on him. I had only known him for a few minutes but there was some part of me that just… wanted to make sure he was okay. I supposed it was out of my hands now. Maybe I’d leave him an extra tip. I looked at the menu and encouraged Ralsei to do the same. If the waiter was going to be here any moment then it was probably important for us to figure out what we wanted beforehand. Ralsei decided on a smoked salmon meal deal thing, who’d have thought that a greek restaurant would serve seafood as well? Apparently not me, but whatever. It worked for him so it worked for me. I settled for a steak gyro. I was mostly in it for the tzatziki sauce, if I was being perfectly honest with myself. When I had worked for Subway they were having a mediterranean thing and I had absolutely fell in love with it on the spot.

When the waiter came by he was looking down at his pad, and went immediately into his little spiel, even though we had decided. He had no way of knowing, of course. “Welcome to Pylos. My name is David and I’ll be your waiter for today. Our special today is a nice Capretto gyro with our specialty lamb sauce.” My eyes went wide when he said that and I quickly interjected.

“Er… Um… sorry to interrupt… We won’t be… having capretto today.”

He looked up from his pad and saw who he was talking to, then instantly looked mortified. “Oh my god… I’m… so sorry.”

Ralsei looked confused, and, frankly, I was kind of glad for that. If he didn’t know what capretto was then that would be even better. “No worries. Um… We actually know what we are getting… already… if you’re good for it…”

The poor server looked so ashamed of his mistake, but nodded professionally, hoping to move past it, I figured. “Of course, of course. What can I get you two?”

“I’ll have the Steak Gyro, extra tzatziki sauce please, if you would.”

He wrote something down on his paper then looked to Ralsei. “Can I get the smoked salmon meal?”

The server wrote that down too and apologized again, before running off. Now that the situation had been averted, I couldn’t help but laugh. Ralsei gave me an extremely confused look.

“What… was that all about?”

I looked at him and did my best to contain my laughter. “Uh… jeez man you don’t wanna know I promise you that. Let’s just say that their special wouldn’t have been too appetizing to either of us.”

“Really? Why not?”

I thought on it. How to answer this in such a way as to satisfy him, but keep his innocence in tact. I wasn’t sure how the goat peoples felt about the fact that people ate goat, under a different name of course, but even still, I didn’t want to risk it. “Let’s just say that Cappreto is not exactly something that either you or I would want to eat. It’s… not the best tasting.” that was a lie, Cappreto was actually really delicious but I would have felt wrong eating it considering who, or I should say what, my partner was.

“Oh… well then thank you for warning me.” He offered me a huge smile and I breathed a sigh of relief. Crisis averted. I was proud of that. That’s how you avoided a potentially awkward or… maybe even offensive set of circumstances.

We sat there and chatted for a bit about anything we could think of. He told me of his home, it wasn’t necessarily in the underground, like where Sans and them were from.

“If my theory is correct, it’s not necessarily that, but I think it’s an alternate version of it. Similar, but not exactly. From what Sans has told me about where he’s from it’s very close though. I don’t know, honestly, how I got here. I was doing some experiments with a… friend that lives down there and something went wrong, and here we are. I’ve been here for a few months now…”

I thought that over, collecting my thoughts on it. “The way you said friend… what was that?”

“Oh… Well… His name was Kris. He was really cool but… I don’t know. I got a feeling like he had the capacity to be a lot worse than he portrayed himself to be. I’d consider him a friend, one hundred percent. But I was a bit nervous about whether or not he’d stay that way at that point. For all I know, he’s the reason I’m here… But I’d like to believe that he wouldn’t do that. If he did… I highly doubt it was his fault.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. I was worried for a moment there that maybe this fella was a love interest of some sort, like that maybe they were a little closer than just friends. It made me feel better to know that that wasn’t the case. That being said, there was another question that was playing on the edge of my mind. “So… do you want to go back?”

That took even more thought on his part. “Well… that’s… complicated. I’m… important? I guess… over there, but I don’t need to be there. I’ve been happier here than I was there, and we managed to fix the issues that were going on in my own place. We put the Delta Rune back in order and all that. Things were definitely looking up when I left, and I’m sure that Lancer has things running well. So there's no real reason for me to have to go back I suppose. And… if I go back I might lose you, and I definitely don't want that. You've been a pretty good part of my life. As a roommate or otherwise…”

I couldn’t help the big doofy smile that crept across my face. That just… filled me with joy. “I’m pretty happy to have you around too, roommate or otherwise. I’m really enjoying your company.”

His smile lit up my world, truly. I let myself get lost in his features for a moment before our food came in. They placed our food in front of us and I started to chow down. He ate too, pausing only to pose a question of his own.  “So what about you? You’ve mentioned your parents a few times now… Where are they?”

I took a moment to think on that, literally chewing it over while I ate my gyro. “My dad and stepmom, the one you will always hear me refer to as my mom, live in Arizona, where I moved from. My dad was a bit upset when he found out I was moving here… I knew he would be, he'd miss me and there wasn't much I could do about that. But he and I talk almost every day so that's fine.”

He tilted his head. “What's a stepmom?”

I chuckled a bit. “Well, you see, my parents got divorced, and then they remarried other people. A step parent is the person your parents married that's not your biological parent.” I thought for a moment. “Provided you're lucky, your step parents will be pretty cool, if you're unfortunate enough to have need of them. I see my stepmom as a light in dark… dark tunnel. She's been good to me.”

“Is your… uh… biological mom remarried?”

That elicited a snicker out of me. “Uuhhh kind of. She's… well, she and my step dad might as well be married, but they've not tied the knot yet, as far as I know. We don't talk often, honestly.”

“Do the two of you not get along well?”

I took a drink and thought on that question for a moment. It was a bit more complicated than a yes or a no. “Well… that's a tough one. We do get along, don't get me wrong. When we do talk, we laugh and joke around and what not, but those moments don't happen too terribly often. She moved away from Arizona a while back and I'll tell ya what, contact with her was difficult when we lived in the same state, not to mention when we didn’t.. So… I guess the response is I like her well enough when she's around.” I shrugged. “Whatever. Such is life. You got parentage?”

He blinked “Do I have what?”

I realized pretty quickly that with him being new to the world he probably hadn't seen or read Ready Player One, something I'd have to fix, so the word parentage probably wasn't familiar to him. “Uh, orry. Do you have parents?”

“Oh!” His face lit up with understanding. “Yes, but they are… not around anymore.”

I squeezed his hand lightly. “I'm so sorry”

He shrugged and made a noise. “It's not a terrible thing honestly. I just don't know them all that well. I don’t… think they're dead, but I don't know.”

“Well I think you've done amazing without them. You're an awesome person Ralsei.”

I watched a blush spread over his face and smiled back. “Well thank you Rori. I think you're pretty great too.” He took a bite, but didn't look up at me. “Do… do you think ill get to meet your parents? Your dad and stepmom seem pretty cool…”

I tilted my head and smiled “Well of course. I'm sure they'd love to meet you. I've told them a little bit about you already… tell ya what… I promised them I'd come back for Christmas and got some time off of work to do so… wanna come back with me?”

His face lit up and he finally met my eyes. “Really? You'd be okay with that?”

I gave a small nod. “For sure. It's just a quick phone call to my mom and then we are set. I'm sure they'd love to have you. After all, this is your first Christmas isn't it?”

He smiled and nodded “I'm excited to see how the customs go. I was worried I wouldn't be able to this year.”

“Why's that?”

“Well… I don't necessarily have family out here, and until you came in and introduced me to the others I didn't have a lot of friends either, so I figured I'd end up having to go it alone.”

I took another bite and mulled it over. “Well the thing you have to realize… is that the monsters used to celebrate Christmas as a town… big tree in the center and everyone would leave presents for everyone else. Papyrus was telling me about it not too long ago. Of course it's a bit more difficult to do it now, humans don't necessarily have that tradition. We tend to keep it to family and friends… but regardless if they saw you about they'd probably try and invite you if they could.”

“That… makes sense I suppose. But even still I wouldn't want to impose.”

“Well hey, you're a part of my family now, like it or not, so you're going to get to see Christmas first hand, and be a part of it. Which reminds me… we need to go Christmas shopping soon. Gotta pick up presents for the others as well as my family. I think my sister is going to be there so I have to account for that too…”

“Do… Should I get them gifts too?”

I chuckled “Oh Ralsei, you’re such a sweetheart. You don’t have to though, I’m sure that just being able to meet you will be a gift enough. I know that they’ll be excited for it too.”

He nodded and gave me a big smile, which put my heart at ease; something that hadn’t happened in a long time. I hoped that we could have many more days like this.


	10. A Bone To Pick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A wonderful thanksgiving with friends, family, and maybe a little bit of mischief

Having something to finally give thanks for, it fills you with determination.

Thanksgiving was always an odd time for me. On one hand, I loved the togetherness and family and friends. That being said, I never knew what to bring. Normally the other people, usually my stepmom, cooked and brought everything along. Due to this, I was thankful this year. I knew exactly what to bring. My stepmom always made this… thing… we called it the pink stuff and it had a bunch of cool stuff in it, primarily marshmallows, whipped cream, cherries and oranges. She also occasionally put pineapple in it, which was fine but I personally preferred it without. Not that I disliked pineapple flavours, but it added a bit of a weird texture to the mix.

It took a lot to keep ralsei from chowing down on it early. He was curious about it and it was the first time I had ever stopped him from eating something I made.

“But Rori it looks so good! I can't even have a bite?”

I shook my head. “No babe, it's gotta be saved for the dinner. You're just going to have to wait for a little bit longer than we can all enjoy it together.” I felt so bad seeing that pouting face, so I gave him a long kiss and he seemed to forget about his desire to graze for a bit. Goats man… they'll eat almost anything it seemed. Oh my god

Getting ready for the dinner also seemed to be a small bit of a hassle. I was trying to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything, phone, food, game system… games for the game system, not to mention actually spending the time to make myself presentable to the masses. I wasn't entirely sure who all would be there but I knew at the very least it'd be Frisk, Toriel, Alice, Sans Papyrus, and possibly Asgore, though I wasn’t fully sure about him. It was a lot to keep track of and I wasn't entirely sure I'd keep everything in mind before I left. I almost left without my keys but Ralsei threw them at me last minute, thankfully, and we headed out.

It was maybe a 15 minute walk over to Toriel’s house, and it was cold… and I hated the walk. It made it better that ralsei was there and more than happy to share body heat. Every time I stepped out of the house I started wondering if moving up north was worth it for the cold, then I saw him and decided, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it was. When we got there, I handed the pink stuff to Ralsei, then knocked on the door. My knuckles barely touched wood before the door was wrenched open and I was assaulted by a small brown-haired child. I picked Frisk up with a smile and spun them around before resting them on my hip, my arm behind their back.

“Hey buddy friend pal amigo. How's it going?”

They freed up their hands from holding onto my shirt so that they could sign to me.

**I’m so excited! This’ll be your first year with us for thanksgiving!**

“I know! I’m excited too!” I lifted them and threw them a little, catching them easily. It made me happy that I was young and still had a lot of experience with throwing around a lot of weight. Kids weren’t light by any stretch of the imagination. “And we’ve got Ralsei here with us too”

**Hi Ralsei! You should probably put that in the kitchen…**

“Well we should all head inside, I’m freezing my shiney hiney out here”

They let out a small, silent giggle at that. It took me time to get used to, but it was positively endearing. I led Ralsei inside, Frisk still in my arms. I looked at him then towards the kitchen. “My love can you put that in the kitchen for me?”

He nodded and gave me a kiss on the cheek. My heart fluttered and Frisk stuck out their tongue in disgust.

**You two are gross.**

I smirked “You’ll understand someday I promise you that.”

**Never. Hey there are two people that wanna see you… well… One person that wants to see you and one that hasn’t met you.**

I raised an eyebrow. “I thought I met everyone already. Is this a friend from school?”

**Nope! To the back yard!**

I flipped Frisk around so they were riding piggy back and made my way there. I was curious, until I opened the back door and saw who it was. He was standing there staring at a yellow flower that seemed to sway back and forth, even though there wasn’t any wind. I set Frisk down and crossed my arms, raising an eyebrow as I saw him. He laid eyes on me pretty quickly and immediately ran over to wrap his arms around me, several times, and spin me around. It was still weird to be lifted up by someone shorter and smaller than me.

“Oh helloooo darling! I was sure hoping that you’d show up today! It surely wouldn’t have been a good to-do without you!”

 I let out a small sigh but hugged him back. “Hey Mettaton. How’s kicks?” It’s not that I entirely disliked Mettaton, but he had a very strong personality.

“With legs like these any kicks are going to be fantabulous!” He also had the makings of an ego bigger than a Kellogs factory. But whatever, he was nice enough about it.

“Sounds like things are doing great. Saw that you were on tour not too long ago, how’d that go?”

“Oh it went fabulous darling! We made so much money for doctors without borders! I’m hoping they’re able to use it well…” That was the other reason I liked him. He did good things with his money.

It was at that moment that I heard a high pitched voice coming from behind mettaton. I hadn’t seen anyone there so I was admittedly confused. “OH for crying out loud! No one cares you idiots! Put him down you look stupid.”

Mettaton rolled his eyes and put me down. I looked around. “What the hell was that?”

He sighed “That… would be Flowey.”

I raised an eyebrow and looked over at the flower. Then I walked up to it and turned the pot to face me. Sure enough, the flower had a face. I snickered. “Hey Frisk, this the same Flowey that caused you so much trouble in the underground?”

Frisk nodded. Yeah, but he’s harmless now. We have him in a pot so he can’t teleport around and cause mayhem.

I smirked “I’m half expecting him to give me sun power so I can build other plants and protect against the zombie apocalypse.”

“Don’t toy with me! I am a god!”

 “It’s been my experience that anyone who screams that they are a god is generally not, in fact, a god.” I reached up and pinched his… cheek? Whatever the cheek-like area on his face was I pinched that. “Besides, you’re so cute. What are you gonna do? Photosynthesize me to death?”

“Frisk! Get your peasant human away from me!”

“He’s actually pretty cute I have to admit” I looked to Frisk.

He’s got a bit of a temper, honestly. But there’s a reason we wanted you to meet him.

“Well that’s always terrifying… What do you need?”

“Weeeelll… I was taking care of him, keeping him out of trouble and all that…” Mettaton gave me a nervous smile, and that made me nervous. “But… I’m going to be travelling around even more, and I’m worried that the little guy is going to get lonely. I’d leave him with Frisk but… Well… He tends to have a problem with Sans…”

 “Don’t you ever leave me with that damned skeleton!”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “Watch your language there’s a kid around”

“I don’t give a damn if there’s a kid around or what you thi-” I bapped him on the nose. Not enough to hurt, but definitely enough for him to feel it. “What the hell was that?”

“I told you to watch your language, and I meant it.” I looked at Mettaton and Frisk. “Yeah, I’ll take him. Maybe between me and Ralsei we can fix his attitude.”

Flowey was sulking now, clearly not happy with me or this new adjustment.

**It’d be nice. He’s a real sweetheart, if you can get past… you know….**

“The fact that he’s the actual definition of a sociopath.” Mettaton cut in.

I nodded then shrugged “I’ve dealt with sociopaths before. Probably could have been classified as one for a little while way back when.”

Mettaton blinked at me “Why, darling, I don’t know how you could have ever been seen as a sociopath.”

I sighed a bit and picked up the flower pot, scratching at the base where the stem met the flower itself. It was partially instinct at this point. I had gotten into the habit in the last month and a half of doing the same to Ralsei, only on the base of his neck. Flowey didn’t show any signs of liking it, but he didn’t seem to dislike it either, so I didn’t stop. “Y’all didn’t know me back when I was younger. Things weren’t all roses and daisies ya know.”

  **Will you tell us some day?**

I stopped scratching and got a glare from Flowey. Okay so I did find a way to incapacitate the little devil. We were getting there. I moved to ruffle Frisk’s hair. “Maybe someday. For now the important thing to note is that I went through some rough spots, and came out a better person for it. Couldn’t be happier now. I’ve got more determination in my heart to do good than I ever did before.” I went back to scratching the flower and… was that a purr? I guess Flowey did like it.

Frisk met me with a huge grin. **Well I’m certainly glad for that!**

Mettaton nodded. “Yes, we are all extremely pleased with how you are now. You’re a good friend Rori.”

I shrugged “I do my best. But I’m glad y’all like me. A little bit of validation from time to time never hurt anyone.”

Mettaton nodded. Sans and Undyne walked out at that moment and looked between the four of us. I set Flowey down so that he could go back to pouting for a little bit and walked up to Undyne giving her a big hug. “Undyne! How’s my favourite fish lady?”

“Hey punk! Doing good, the job’s been working me hard though. Not that it’s anything I can’t handle!” I liked Undyne. She’s got that tomboy thing that I always had a thing for as a child, and a certain amount of determination that was unmatched. I suppose that’s why she was the head of the royal guard back when they were still underground. I pitied anyone taking her class though. Even just training with her was difficult as hell.… If I had to do it every day? No way in hell. No thank you. That being said, it had been a minute since we had trained.

“So what you’re saying is that there’s no chance for training today? I mean… working up a sweat is a good way to stay warm and all.”

She raised a brow at me. “On Thanksgiving?”

 “For sure. After all, we should give everyone a nice show right?”

“Well… Uh…” She looked too tired to spar, so I decided to relent. It’d be mean to push her too much, as much as I wanted to.

“Don’t worry, we don’t have to. You look tired anyway.”

“Is that a challenge?” She gritted her teeth and her spear appeared in her hands.

She was going to take a step forward, but she was stopped by a bony hand. A literal… Bbny hand. “Don’t worry Undyne. I’ll uh… Take your place, so to speak.”

I blinked. “Sans? I mean I figure you can fight but… That’s a lot of effort that you don’t usually put forth.”

He shrugged “Yeah sure, why not. Could be fun.”

Frisk seemed to bounce a bit, then ran off inside. I looked at Mettaton, who shrugged, then at Flowey. Who raised an eyebrow… petal… thing at me. “Kick his ass peasant, for my amusement.”

I sighed. If I backed off now I’d lose a lot of face, but… at the same time, Sans made me nervous as hell to fight. He just… had an aura about him that said he could fuck my day up and not even think twice. I thought on it for a little while before concluding that I was kind of stuck, and it was my stupid fault. I put my hands in my pockets and walked to a more open area of the backyard. Sans walked out to the opposite end and faced me, a big smile on his face. He pulled out his hand and started to balance a small bone on the tip of his finger. Where the hell did he get that from? I had the feeling I was about to come into a very close relationship with a verifiably crummy juncture. I sighed and pulled my headphones out of my pockets. Working on untangling them I looked to Undyne. “Set the rules fish-girl.”

She thought on it. “No groin shots. No killing each other. Other than that…” she shrugged. “Make sure to keep it all in good fun.”

I put on my headphones and turned on my 80’s playlist, smirking when it started off with Back in Black by AC/DC. An appropriate starting song. I couldn’t have picked a better one myself. I gave a nod to Sans, who just gave me his normal silly expression. I squared my shoulders, cracked my knuckles (which caused a nice little wince from the bone boy), and ran toward him. He recovered from his cracking-related nausea and threw his hand out at me. Seemingly out of nowhere, giant bones flew at me. I squeaked in shock and jumped fast. Not being able to get out of the way quickly, I decided to go over them instead, using them to vault myself toward him. I jumped up and prepared to slam my fist down upon that thick skull of his, but caught a bone to the ribs instead. It knocked the wind out of me, sending me flying back and causing me to land on my ass. I gasped for air and struggled to my feet. He had a few more tricks up his sleeve than I had originally thought. More on my guard this time, I ran to the fence, snagged one of our practice swords and ran back at him. He threw more bones at me and I did my best to dodge them, knocking away the ones that I couldn’t avoid. I was focused and determined now: there was nothing but my opponent and me. I’m sure that a ghost could have popped out of the aether and done a samba in the corner and it would have sunk into the black abyss that seemed to completely envelop my peripheral vision.

I managed to make my way back to Sans, deciding against any flips or cool maneuvers. This wasn’t a sparring match with Undyne or Papyrus, where I got extra points for style. For some reason I felt like this was considerably more important, and I couldn’t afford to waste time or thought on how the fight looked. I swung sideways, intending to hit his chest, but he stepped back in response. I let the momentum of my swing carry my blade, opening my hand just enough to allow it to move freely. It flipped around and I grabbed the hilt fully, the blade now pointing away from my body. I swung the sword, aiming for his waist. I was very quickly learning that Sans was much faster than I gave him credit for, and it surprised me. He was so lazy all the time... how did someone who would sit on the couch for hours without moving an inch manage to move so damn fast? He jumped up as I brought the sword around and landed on top of it, giving me a cocky-ass grin as he did. After a second of me supporting his weight, he jumped off, doing a swanky little backflip as he did. I honestly hated him a little in that moment. I growled and charged him. Strategy was important, yes, but honestly at this point I was more concerned with dodging his attacks and, hopefully, landing at least one hit of my own. I was almost shocked out of my charge when two giant… were those horse skulls? I wasn’t honestly sure what they were and in the heat of battle I wasn’t too terribly inclined to take a closer look. Whatever they were they opened their mouths and light shot out at an extremely high velocity. I had a split second to switch directions, and I made a mental note to thank Undyne for those reverse spearheads that she always sent at me. I feinted to the left to be on the outside of one of the light beams. They seemed to be limited in the amount of time they could shoot. I counted the seconds, barely even two. It wasn’t a long time, but I imagined that even half a second of being hit by one of those would hurt like a bitch. I decided I didn’t want to find out.

The charge continued, with the added benefit of the blasters tracking me now. Once they fired they seemed to be incapable of moving until they finished, a weakness I’d have to exploit. I checked my surroundings, nothing to give me an edge… that would make this difficult, though I did spot one advantage. The blasters, being similar to skulls, had a fair amount of jagged edges. One of them might make an excellent foothold, if I could get to it. I kept dodging around and when they both stopped I counted, Five seconds is all I’d need. One: I bent my knees a bit more mid run. Two: I sprung up into the air. Three: I hit the apex, and started falling. Four: I dropped down, falling to my knees and leaning back as far as possible, using my momentum to propel me forward into a slide as the blasters fired in a cross mere inches away from my nose. It was hot, and I wondered if my eyebrows would be singed after this. Five: I got past the light beam and shot up to my feet, using the position like a spring to launch me up again, but not heading towards Sans. Oh no, I was heading toward the blaster.

I twisted in mid-air slamming my feet against the blaster. My thought was that one of two things would happen; either a) It would stay put in air, and I’d be able to use that to my advantage, or b) it’d crash to the ground and, hopefully, become unusable. The former proved to be the reality of the situation and I was able to bunch up my legs one more time and shoot myself towards Sans. As I did I readied the sword and used every bit of my momentum to my advantage. There’s no way he could dodge this, either my body would hit him or the sword would. Sure as shit, he went to dodge to his right but miscalculated. I tucked my head towards my right side right before I impacted hard into his chest. We slid against the ground for a bit before reaching a stop. I groaned a bit; it was a painful hit on my end, I couldn’t imagine how Sans felt. I put my hands below me and pushed up, slowly but surely getting to my feet. When I got up I looked at Sans. I faced to the right and spat, trying to get the taste of blood out of my mouth. Another thing I had to thank Undyne for: I was used to getting hit in the face, stomach, and… really anywhere that could cause some form of bleeding, so I wasn’t exactly freaking out. Instead, I looked back down at Sans and held out my hand. He took it, and I pulled him up and into a hug, laughing as reality returned to my peripheral vision.

“Good match, mate. Can’t wait to do it again.” I let go, took a step back, and held out my hand one more time. He took it, grinning, and we shook.

“I have to admit, that was a lot of fun.” Sans’ grin stretched from… er… well not ear to ear, but that was the gist of it.

I took a moment to look at the crowd that had amassed by the door, then at the rest of the backyard. “Oh jeez… Toriel is going to have my hide for this.” It wasn’t the worst it had ever been, but it certainly wasn’t in prime condition. Bones littered the place here and there, as well as the occasional scorch mark from the blasters. I only had a moment to think about it before cheers erupted from the crowd. I turned back towards them and took Sans’ hand, holding it up, then taking a stage bow. It had, after all, been a performance. I let go of Sans’ hand and searched the crowd. When I found Ralsei i walked over to him, albeit somewhat painfully and smiled big.

“Where… where did you learn to fight like that Rori?”

“Oh, well… it was a mixture of living in the bad side of time and Undyne’s amazing training.”

Undyne decided that moment to come up behind me and pat my back. “Oh no, that right there goes a bit past what I taught you. You’ve got a skill for fighting, punk. I don’t know why you’re spending all your time as a CNA…”

I shrugged. “I like sparring, and apparently I’m good at it, but… that doesn’t mean I want to fight out of necessity. I’d prefer the pacifist route.”

Undyne laughed. “You’re such a nerd!” And with that, she ran off to go find Alphys.

The rest of the crowd retreated as well and I felt a bit better. Once everyone left I could grab the flower, sneak to the bathroom and tend to my wounds. Word to the wise… Sans hits hard as hell. Each hit that I took (which I realize now might have been more than I thought at the time, adrenaline was a bitch like that) seemed to hit me multiple times. It wasn’t the best and, honestly, though I wouldn’t admit it, I think Sans actually won that fight. I certainly came out of it with the most damage between the two of us. It made me glad that he was on my side. I cast a glance at him. He was laughing and smiling with Alice.

I looked back to Ralsei. “Mind coming with me? I wanna get myself back in proper condition. As fun as that was… it hurt.”

“Why'd you do it then?”

I shrugged, wincing a little at the action. “It was fun.”

He sighed “Alright love, let's get you to a bathroom”

I nodded, grabbed the plant, and followed my boyfriend inside.


	11. A swift recovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ralsei helps Rori lick his wounds

The power of your boyfriend’s happiness shines through you.

No one would be able to quantify how terrified Ralsei was when he had heard Rori was going to fight Sans. He still didn't know sign language fluently, but he was learning and he understood **Rori is going to fight Sans** pretty well. When Frisk said that, he and Alice shared a glance, then ran out to, hopefully, stop them. Alas, they were already in the thick of it before the back door even closed. Ralsei watched with worry and… admittedly, pride as they fought. Rori was holding his own pretty well ,and watching Rori duck, dodge, weave, and dive around the attacks that came his way impressed Ralsei, along with some other feelings he didn't quite want to admit or figure out. He still put his hands over his mouth, though, because some of those hits that Rori took looked like they hurt… a lot. Despite everything… Rori kept going. Ralsei didn't understand how. He should have passed from being in pain by this point.

The fight didn't last long. Rori made a pretty impressive move and managed to knock Sans down, then in the most sportsmanlike gesture Ralsei had seen, he reached his hand down and help Sans up. Ralsei's heart beat even faster with that. He felt a blush creep across his face and he really hoped no one saw him. He suspected that Alice had actually seen him, but if she did she didn't let on.

All this went through his mind as he held the bandages for Rori.

“Go ahead and put your finger right there my love.”

Ralsei followed the instruction and watched Rori worked. He had never actually seen Rori in medical mode, save for on occasion when Ralsei had gotten an accidental cut or minor pain. He wondered if he ever would see full on medical Rori. Even at this point… Rori was concentrating for sure, but Ralsei could tell he wasn’t in work mode. If he was honest he would be okay with not seeing it. Even this was enough to get Ralsei's heart racing. Rori had this habit of sticking his tongue out a little bit and chewing on it when he concentrated, as well as furrowing his brow. It was a really attractive look.

Rori wrapped up wound in gauze, and then a bandage. He had to explain the difference between a bandage and a band-aid to Ralsei, and it had honestly frustrated Ralsei a bit. He didn't fully understand how a brand name could become so synonymous with a product that everyone, including other brand employees, would use that name instead of what it was called. Bandaids, Kleenex, jacuzzis… Ralsei didn't understand why things couldn't just be simple.

Ralsei handed Rori the scissors and Rori proceeded to cut the bandage off and secure it. He then started working at some of his other injuries.

“The bruises are going to be the roughest. I can't really sew those up or put a bandage on ‘em. They'll have to heal in their own time. But the cuts? Those are easy.”

And thus he proceeded to show Ralsei how to take care of the injuries, walking him through the process. There were some advantages to dating someone going to school for nursing, one of which was his ability to take care of his own wounds with skill and grace

“I'm frankly surprised you managed to make it, human. Maybe I underestimated you a little,” Flowey finally spoke up. He had been sitting on the counter, silently watching the whole process.

“Well thank you, Flowey.” Rori treated the plant with a big smile and Ralsei didn't fully understand. Sure, Rals tried to be as nice as he could to everyone but… that flower was just plain mean, and, he worried, irredeemable. But Rori still tried, and you had to commend him for that.

“You're still a filthy peasant, but maybe a useful filthy peasant.”

Rori rolled his eyes and smirked. “Whatever you say buddy. Whatever you say.” He rolled up his pant leg and poured alcohol over a pretty big cut, then sighed. “Grab the needle and some thread again for me, love.”

He hated this part, but he couldn't stop himself from watching. He handed Rori the needle and thread, watched him actually disinfect and thread it, then bite down hard on a towel. It was only after preparations were done that he started to dig into his own skin with the needle. Ralsei winced a bit. Blood in general made him a bit woozy, even a small amount of it. He just… was not a fan. It's how he knew he'd never be able to do what Rori does, but Rori had this ability to shut off the part of his brain that cared about that kind of stuff. It was something Ralsei admired, that ability to get down to work and do what needs to be done. It was almost like a switch flipped in Rori’s head that allowed him so much freedom to do gruesome tasks.

Even still, Ralsei knew that Rori was in pain. He could see it in the man's grimace every time he went through the skin. It didn't help that the cut was on Rori’s thigh, and as Rori had taught him a little while ago, the thigh was an extremely sensitive part of the human body. Ralsei knew that Rori was holding back a lot of the pain he felt.

Ralsei waited patiently for Rori to finish, helping where he could. The rest of the process couldn't have taken longer than 20 minutes. When he was done he stood up and pretended like nothing happened. “There we go. Good as new.”

He said that, but Ralsei could tell that it hurt. He wasn't putting much of his weight on his left leg, and was moving a little bit slower than normal. It wasn't good, but he was as bandaged as he could be… and it's not like it wasn't done by a professional…. Seeing him standing there, holding a big smile on his face and being… well, either brave or stupid about the pain… it gave Ralsei that same feeling as before. He had to adjust his scarf a bit, it was feeling a bit too hot in the bathroom.

“Definitely.” Ralsei lied. “How long until you're fully recovered?”

Rori shrugged. “‘bout a week or so.”

“What are you going to do about work?”

Rori blinked, as if the thought that this could be a problem had never even occurred to him. “I'm still gonna go.”

Ralsei’s eyes rounded. “But… with you being in this state you shouldn't be moving around and working still! You told me yourself that one of the worst things a person can do when they've suffered injuries is continue working like nothing happened… and that it was your biggest pet peeve.”

He shrugged “That's them. I'm awesome, or haven't you noticed?”

Flowey snorted. “Yeah, right.”

Rori shot him a glare then turned back to Ralsei, a big grin on his face. “Besides, can't call in sick for a week, census is low and I don't know how I'd explain this to my job. Not like I can say that my best friends skeleton boyfriend beat my dick into the dirt.”

“Still… you should-” Ralsei was cut off when rori kissed him, eliciting retching noises from Flowey.

“I'll be fine, my love. Don't you worry about me okay? I've got this.”

Ralsei got the sickening feeling that he significantly did not ‘have this’, but he knew by this point that Rori was too stubborn to be talked out of things. He'd just have to make sure Rori took it easy at home.


	12. Sympathy For The Devil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rori thinks about his feelings, and gets unexpected help in the process.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is one of my favourites and it took me a while to get it right, I hope y'all like it as much as I do. 
> 
> Thank you for the kudos and views and what not guys! It's good to know that others like this story as much as I do!

With your friends and family around you, you are filled with determination.

 

Dinner went off without a hitch, and you were happy for that. Toriel started serving at about 5-ish at the suggestion of you and Alice. Apparently, last year, they had started it later and didn’t have a lot of time to clean up afterward, so Alice and I had tag teamed her the previous night to start earlier, to save all of us from the stress of the situation. 

The set up was pretty easy to predict, honestly. Ralsei sat next to me, with Frisk on the other side; that one took me a small bit by surprise. Alice was on the other side of Frisk, then Sans and Papyrus. Past them was Undyne and Alphys, Asgore, Mettaton, then Toriel (Toriel had forced Mettaton to sit in between them) Sitting in front of me and a bit off to the side was Flowey. They had objected a small bit to having him at the table but I had insisted that he had just as every right to be here as any of us. He was, after all, a sentient flower, psychopath or no.

About halfway through the meal, Frisk and I decided we were going to have fun and start making designs with our mashed potatoes. I made a traditional monster, the gurgling mud thing that you commonly see referred to as “The living blob” or something along those lines, Frisk made… I’m not sure what it was. They said that it was called a Moldsmall. It honestly looked like a molded thing of gelatin.We carried on with that for a while until my mashed potatoes ended up looking a fair bit like a certain goat boy. It was at that moment that I declared Frisk the winner, a blush crossing my face.

When we decided to serve dessert, everything went silent. Between Toriel’s various pies, including a butterscotch cinnamon pie which I had to admit made my heart sing a bit, and my pink stuff, it was an absolutely delicious dessert. The others liked my dessert too, which made me happy. I had never made it before so I was a small bit worried about that. 

  
“Rori this stuff is absolutely delicious!” Papyrus screamed, breaking the silence and making me jump a bit. It was at that moment that a very important question came to mind. If they were skeletons… how did they eat? That was something I really didn’t want to think about. “You simply must teach me how to make it!”

I flushed at the compliment. “Sorry Pap, Family recipe. Only people who are allowed to know are family and whomever I choose to marry.” I treated him with a smirk then picked up to drink my soda.

“Speaking of, when are you and Ralsei going to marry? Undyne and Alphys got married, and Alice and Sans are engaged…” Papyrus’ question took me off guard, and I choked on my drink, my cheeks darkening significantly. Suddenly, everyone’s eyes seemed to be on me.

  
“Uh… Well.. We’ve only been… ya know… D-dating for a few months now Pap… M-Marriage isn’t something you should… uh… rush into… Ya know?” I winced as I recognized certain speech patterns of mine from when I was younger coming back to haunt me. 

“Well you two are clearly meant for each other! Just look at how stupendously you two fit together!”

I avoided eye contact with just about everyone at the table, especially Ralsei. Toriel seemed to sense my uncomfort and interjected. “I think it would be wise to move away from this particular subject for the time being. When Rori and Ralsei are ready, they will take the next step.” 

 

I flashed an appreciative smile her way as the others relented on the matter. I quickly decided to avoid any potential conversation by forcing more pie into my face, even though I was already so full. Anything to get away from that topic. After a few moments of everyone else talking amongst themselves and me awkwardly, and painfully, shoveling food I looked at Toriel. “Would you mind if I were excused? I wanna get a head start on these dishes.”

She nodded “Of course Rori. I did not know you would be doing them.”

“Neither did I,” I said under my breath. Regardless I went around and, being a good server, picked up all the plates that were done. When that was done, and they were all placed in the sink, I went and grabbed all of the serving plates and did the same thing. I threw on my headphones and started to jam out while I put the leftovers in tupperware. Normally I hated this part of Thanksgiving, but for now it was a very helpful retreat. It was just me, the dishes, and some awesome music. I was jamming out to Separate Ways and about a quarter way through my job when I felt arms wrap around my waist. I jumped a little; it’s hard to be aware of your surroundings when you’ve got both headphones in. On top of that, Ralsei didn’t set off any of the normal alarms off in my mind that most people did when they got near me. My suspicions were confirmed when I looked down and saw green sleeves with black furred hands attached to them. I pulled out a headphone and turned to face him, wrapping my arms around him in turn.

“Hey love. What’s up? How come you aren’t hanging out with all the cool kids, hmmm?”

“I just wanted to check to make sure you were alright.”

“You also forgot me! I don’t want to be there with all those losers!” Flowey’s voice came from the counter by the door.

I sighed. “Flowey, you’re going to have to socialize my dude. I mean, I get it believe me, but there are going to be times where you have to spend time with others.”

He glared at me. “No… shut up. That idea is stupid and you’re stupid for coming up with it.”

I rolled my eyes. I’d get to him eventually. My ceaseless optimism couldn’t be avoided forever… Not even by me… “Whatever.” I looked back to Ralsei and placed a chaste kiss on his forehead. “I’m okay sweetheart, don’t you worry your pretty little horns.”

“Well it’s just… You ran out so fast after Papyrus said that… thing…” He looked away from me. “I was just sorta.. wondering why. It’s… not because of me is it?”

My eyes rounded and I hugged him close. “No my love, it wasn’t because of you I promise you that.”

“Then… what was it? If you don’t mind me asking…” He looked up at me a bit confused.

“Well… I mean you know my concerns about marriage. The prospect kinda scares me…”

“Because of the whole family curse thing?”

I nodded. “We don’t have the best history with marriage ya know? The fact that my dad and stepmom have stayed together as long as they have is just… astounding to me… if I’m being perfectly honest. I do wanna get married…. and as time goes by and things continue as they have I don’t think I’d mind if…” I sighed and shook my head. “Never mind, that’s a conversation for another day. Regardless, while I want to get married some day, the prospect is daunting for sure.”

He nodded. “Well okay… that makes sense I suppose. I just… wasn’t sure if it was because of that or something else.”

I kissed him gently. “Give me time darling. I’m hoping that with that time I’ll become a bit more acclimated to the idea of marriage.”

Ralsei nodded and kissed me back. “Alright…. And you’re sure you’re okay?”

“I am, I promise you that. Now go and hang out with the others, they need you to keep them from starting any fires.”

“There might be a fire? How would that happen?”

“Undyne and Papyrus are in the same room. Use your imagination.”

He nodded “You’ve got a point there…. Alright. Do come and join us though, I would hate if you spent all your time in here.”

“I will my love, I promise.” With that he let me go, lingering for just a second before walking out. I watched him go, sighed when he was out of sight, then moved Flowey to be close to me as I did my job. I don’t know why but I actually kinda liked having the flower around, even in the short amount of time that I had known him. Maybe it was because he acted as a good opposing point to me? Whatever, wasn’t important. What was important was that I needed to get these dishes done.

I worked on them for another 5 minutes, with Flowey watching pretty intently. He seemed to be thinking, and that thought honestly made me curious, but I decided to not mention anything. I figured he’d speak up when he was ready, and sure as shit after a while he took a deep breath.

“I think you should marry him.”

I blinked and the knife I was washing slipped in my hand, cutting the outside of my thumb a small bit. I cursed and pulled my hand out of the sink before starting to clean it. I dried off the wound and started putting a bandage on it. “What?”

Flowey sighed “Don’t pretend you didn’t hear me. Or maybe you really are that stupid and you missed it, I’ll say it slower this time so your puny brain can pick it up. You. Should. Marry. Him.”

“And why the hell would you say that?” I glared at him as I went back to washing dishes.

“Oh don’t pretend you don’t know why I would say that. There are ten million different timelines with all different possibilities to walk down and if you carry on like this you’re going to end up in the one where you die alone with no one but me to keep you company.”

“That sounds… abhorrent.”

“Thanks. Really appreciate the comment, asshole. Regardless, you don’t want that, and while I don’t care, you and I both know you would. You humans have this habit of developing sentimentality and falling in love or whatever. And when you develop those stupid feelings and don’t act on them you get sad. It’s stupid, but whatever.”

I was honestly a bit shocked. “I wasn’t expecting you of all people to take this stance.”

“Again, I don’t care, but you would.”

I eyed him suspiciously. “Flowey do… do you care about how I feel?”

He made a ‘Pfft’ noise. “No. Why would I? You’re just some peasant.” Despite his words, he was refusing to make eye contact with me.

“You Tsundere piece of shit you totally do care!”

“No. I don’t. I’m not capable of caring, Rori. It is actually one of those things I’m physically incapable of feeling within myself. So no. I don’t. Shut up, you’re stupid for even bringing up that possibility. I would be just as happy if you died in a fire.”

I smirked. “Awww, unfortunately I don’t intend to die in a fire any time soon, so sucks to be you.”

“Whatever. Regardless, you should do it. Fuck your fears. The way that you two look at each other is so sickeningly sweet that it’s obvious you two are in love, so why the fuck are you playing games with this? You found the person you want to spend your life with have you not? So just fucking do it. God your mating habits are stupid as hell.”

I thought on that for a good little while, continuing to wash as I did. Finally I spoke up. “What if he says no, hmm? Do you realize how much that would destroy me?”

“Oh who cares! You know what would hurt you more? Never taking that chance. Wussing out and staying in your damn shell of safety on the slim chance that he happens to say no. Fuck that. Grab your stupid life by the roots and pull. Otherwise I’ll never respect you.”

“I didn’t think you respected me now.”

“I’ll respect you less then.”

“I don’t think that’s possible Flowey.”

“Shut the fuck up and go propose to your little asshole.”

“No fuckin way in hell am I doing that tonight Flowey. Maybe soon though. You do bring up some good points... “ Okay yeah I was apparently more tired than I thought, sinceI was listening to Flowey and actually considering what he said. That might be a bad thing.

I went back to working on the dishes with a lot to think about. Though he was a genocidal flower, he made some good points. I didn’t want to end up in a timeline where I was stuck alone, because me being alone means that I’m without Ralsei. It wasn’t a happy thought, if I was being perfectly honest, and the way that he made my heart feel, all fast and nervous had to mean something right? I hadn’t felt that before and honestly that scared me too… but maybe it was time to put those fears aside and fully embrace them instead. I’d have to work on it, maybe I could muster up the courage to do it before I turned 30.

I finished up the dishes and decided to keep my promise. I grabbed Flowey (I’d really have to see if I couldn’t rig him something to move himself around… conditionally, if course. There was no way I’d let him go out and about on his own.) and went to the living room. Everyone was relaxing: Papyrus, Frisk and Alice were playing Mario Kart, with Sans sitting next to Alice, an arm around her shoulders. Ralsei was watching intently, always eager to learn something new. Toriel was sitting in her chair, with Asgore on the opposite side of the room, occasionally looking over at her. Alphys and Mettaton were sitting next to Undyne while Alphys worked on something involving a panel on Mettaton’s back. Naturally, I decided to sit next to Rals. I set Flowey on the table, pointed at the T.V. put an arm around his waist and he instantly moved to rest his head on my chest.

Once the round was over, Frisk looked behind them and found me sitting there. They ran up to sit next to me and it very quickly devolved into me being a pillow. I hoped I was satisfactory. With Rals on my chest and Frisk on my stomach it seemed I wouldn’t be getting up any time soon, so I decided to make myself comfortable. Once I hit a point where I was relaxed and content, it didn’t take long for me to pass out on the couch. No one woke me up until the morning. Even Flowey let me sleep, and I was fine with that.


	13. The birds are singing, the bees are stinging

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ralsei and Alice have a very awkward conversation to prepare Ralsei for the future.

Your friends compassion and their ability to care for you, it fills you with determination.

 

After the wonderful time of thanksgiving, which went over surprisingly well, we had a pretty peaceful morning the next day and ended up playing video games. The only thing that was out of the ordinary happened when I was sitting outside, drinking my soda and enjoying the view. I'm not the biggest on social events, so while I loved everyone in there, I had to take a break from time to time from the binds of social constraint. My peace was broken a bit when Sans walked out and sat next to me, sipping on a ketchup bottle. I wasn't a big fan of ketchup in general, so it always made my nose crinkle a bit when he drank the stuff, but I said nothing. I did give a small wave, however.

We sat in silence for a while, enjoying the quiet, before sans broke the silence. “So… sorry about Papyrus last night.”

I had to think about what he was referring to, the incident already firmly out of my mind. When realization hit I shrugged in response. “Eh, it happens. He's excited, Undyne and Alphys are together, you and Alice, and those relationships have been going on for a good while now. This is something relatively new to him. It's understandable that he'd be curious about where we stand.”

He nodded. “Yeah… I just didn't want you to be upset or anything at him. He's excitable is all.”

I shrugged again. “I can't be mad at Papyrus, or any of you for that matter. Y'all are my best friends. That's a bond that far surpasses awkwardness.”

“I suppose. He's just really excited for this. Have you two gone on a date yet?”

I nodded. “Yup. We went to that one Greek restaurant, Pylos? It was really nice. Calm for sure. Not sure I'll be taking him back there though.”

“Well why not? If it was a good place then wouldn't you wanna go back?”

I sighed. “They serve goat… it's actually pretty prominent on the menu… I'm just glad Ralsei doesn't know what they call different cuts of the meat.”

“Didn't you used to love eating goat? Like wasn't it a favourite of yours?”

“Well yeah, but now I'm dating a goat.”

“So you're enjoying a different kind of goat meal eh?” He smirked over at me and I, once again, choked on my drink. It sent me into coughing fits, and Sans had to pat my back to get me to calm down from it.

“I… we haven’t… that's not…”

He blinked “Wait you two still haven’t… ya know… gone to the bone zone?”

I shook my head. “I don't know what he's done before, and I want him to be comfortable with me before we take that leap, ya know? I mean I only just got him out of the habit of asking before he kisses me…”

“Well I can tell you he wants it. It's pretty obvious honestly.”

“Wait, what? How can you tell?”

“Well besides the looks he gives you, along with the lip biting he does whenever you do… well most anything, you can see it in his aura.”

I blinked. “Sans I can't see auras, you know that as well as I do.”

“Well you could, if you were to try. I'll see if I can teach you some day. Regardless I had honestly thought you two did something in the bathroom yesterday after our sparring match. He had so much lust staining his aura. It bothered me a little at the time but knowing that that isn't the case…”

I shrugged. “Nah my dude. I wouldn't have sex in Toriel’s house. That's just one of those things you don't do. It'd be like having sex at your grandma’s”

“Didn't you do that though?”

“It was once and I felt horrible afterwards.”

“Whatever bro. Regardless, the G wants your D, and I think if he waits any longer he's going to burst.”

“Well I wanna let him make that move.”

“Does he even know what it is he's feeling? I mean if he's new… and you're his first relationship… have you considered that the reason he hasn't made that move is because he doesn't understand what it is he wants?”

I groaned and put my head in my hands. “Are you seriously suggesting I give the birds and the bees talk… to my boyfriend?”

He chuckled at that “Nah man, we can take care of that for you”

My eyes went wide and I stared at him. “Um… y- you're going to give my boyfriend the birds and bees chat?” That thought terrified me

“Oh no, I'm not. Alice is.”

That made me feel… a small bit better. “Alright I suppose that's fine. I mean what can possibly go wrong?”  _ Besides everything, I thought to myself. _

“Exactly! It'll be great. Alice will talk to him and they'll work things out.” I leaned back and took another drink.

“Ya know… I don't drink often but… this conversation would be something to get me to do it again.”

“Thanksgiving is like that. I'm surprised you didn't grab a beer last night.”

I shrugged. “Didn't have one, and besides I don't like drinking… especially not in front of kids.”

He shrugged. “Makes sense to me,” he said, then headed inside.

 

__________________________

 

Ralsei was enjoying his peaceful afternoon. They weren't heading home until later: Rori wanted to enjoy the after effects of thanksgiving, said it was a part of the holiday. That being said, Rori was currently outside. He hadn't even taken Flowey with him this time. The flower was, instead, sat next to Frisk, who was feeding him different things to see his reaction. Ralsei had to admit it was amusing to watch.

Frisk had just fed the flower a lemon slice when Alice came in and leaned close to Ralsei, then whispered low. “Hey, need to talk to you. You got a minute?”

He looked up at her and blinked, then nodded. Alice was interesting… medium height with long brown hair and an almost perpetual smile. He stood up and followed her to one of the bedrooms in the house. Ralsei looked around a bit and his face flushed. “Why… are we in a bedroom?”

Alice gestured to the bed. “Sit.” When he did, she pulled a chair around to be in front of him and sat down. “What do you know about attraction?”

Ralsei was a bit shocked at this. “Um… Alice you and I are both dating someone… and Rori told me that that meant we didn't do anything like that with other people…”

She rolled her eyes. “Not toward me you dork. Don't get me wrong, you're adorable but you're more like a little brother to me. No, I mean what do you know about being attracted to someone like Rori?”

“Well I know that he makes my heart jump and I get really happy when he's around… and sometimes he causes this really warm feeling in my stomach that doesn't go away for a good while. It's a bit frustrating actually…”

She nodded. “That's what we're going to talk about here, that warm feeling. That's what we call arousal. It happens when you want to… er… have sex with someone.”

“I… haven't had sex with someone before, how would I know if I want it?”

“Well, that feeling shows up. I'd generally suggest only acting on it when you truly trust the person but you're free to decide for yourself on that one, I'm not one to butt in on what you decide to do.” She then went on to describe sex to Ralsei, modifying the standard birds and bees talk to adjust to their particular relationship. It was a small but difficult, considering that she had no clue how goat person anatomy worked, but she did her best with what she had, they couldn't be that different. By the end of it, Ralsei was blushing a deep red, and Alice felt a small bit relieved to be done. Finally she got up and walked to a bag.

“Now… I got this as a gift for you and Rori, and it holds some relevance to all… this.” she picked up the bag and handed it to Ralsei. He grabbed it and looked inside, blushing a bit as he pulled out a pair of… well, he supposed the best thing to describe them would be thigh high boots, but they were missing the toes. They were striped, alternating between a deep forest green and a vibrant hot pink. They both had a small black bow on the top. They were really cute, but made Ralsei extremely confused

“Why are you giving me these?”

She smirked. “I've known Rori for about a year now, and when you've known someone that long, you also tend to learn about their… er… preferences, even if on accident. Now you already fulfill most if not all of Rori’s general preferences for a partner, between the nice thighs, cute face, feminine body type, so on and so forth. But one of the more specific things he really likes is right there in your hands… paws… whatever.”

He looked at them and then back at her. “I satisfy most of Rori’s preferences?”

She nodded. “Yeah you're kinda perfect for him, both for sexual attraction as well as emotionally and mentally. I mean hell he wouldn't shut up about you that first week you two lived together. Still won't. He already wants you, this will just give you an edge.”

Ralsei nodded and put the thigh highs back in the bag, he'd save that for when he knew he was ready. “Thank you, Alice. Truly. For… all of this. I think I understand some of the things I've been feeling a little bit better now.”

“Good, now go downstairs and spend the rest of thanksgiving with your boyfriend. He's probably worried I'm corrupting your mind or something up here.”

Ralsei nodded and closed up the bag tight, then slid it into his sweater. He seemed to have extra pockets in there. When Rori checked, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but sure as shit he was able to hide all manner of crazy stuff in those pockets. Ralsei then got up and trotted down the stairs. He found Rori sitting on the couch, having a conversation with Flowey. He immediately went over, plopping onto Rori’s lap and nuzzling into him a bit. Rori didn't hesitate to pause his conversation and give Ralsei a gentle kiss on the cheek, then wrap his arms around the goat. It was at that moment that the prospect of taking those future steps with Rori didn't seem all to scary or daunting at all, as they had when Alice was explaining them to him. Instead, he felt comfortable and secure, honestly ready to take their relationship to the next level.


	14. A Christmas Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to your obligatory Christmas chapters. There is going to be a few of them so be prepared. You guys know well enough at this point that I like to spread out chapters by important things that happen so we're going to watch how the days go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love these fluffy chapters, I really do. We'll get our sin chapter soon though I promise you that. Like... Not the next chapter but the chapter afterwards. I'm going to make it perfectly clear which one is the sin chapter so don't you worry about that, if you wanna skip it then that's okay. Big stuff happening soon though. I'm gonna mix in the serious shit with some fluffy love so don't worry bout that.

Overcoming the fear of your partner meeting your parents, it fills you with determination.

 

“Hey mom, got a kinda awkward question for ya?” It had taken her a little while to respond to that.

“What's up honey?”

“I was wondering if you'd be okay with me bringing my roommate along with me for Christmas?”

“Uhhh yeah sure I don't see a problem with that, though I'd have to ask your dad. I take it he doesn't have anywhere to go?”

“Well… I suppose he could hang out with Alice and Sans and them… but other than that no, he's… kinda got no family here so he'd be all alone on Christmas…”

“And naturally you can't let that be the case. Alright I'll talk to your dad, but the answer will probably be yes.”

“Thank you mom. I love you”

“Love you too kiddo.”

That was a good little while ago, back when Ralsei and I had first talked about it. I hadn't… really told my mom about where my relationship had gone after that. We had talked and she asked how Ralsei was out of courtesy, but that was a subject I  didn't fully want to breach… yet. Not that she was stingy about that kind of shit, she knew I was pan well before I did, but it was still an awkward subject in general. “Hey mom just so you know i’m attracted to a goat. Also the goat is a guy and he's really cute”. Yeah not something I wanted to scream from the mountain tops or drop on my mom immediately. I'd rather her meet Ralsei personally and form an opinion, then spring it on her at that point. Though she had a certain affection for goats, so I was hoping that'd work in my favour.

These were all things that popped into my head as we drove from Phoenix to Marana. Ralsei was sleeping in the passenger side with Flowey in the back. He had stretched himself up to look out the window; he had actually gotten a small bit bigger since I had gotten him a month ago, so I had to re-pot him and put his seat belt on to keep him safe. He had… eased up in the meantime. I had been working with him pretty consistently on his attitude and I think some of it was starting to stick. He still had a pretty bad attitude when I wasn't around, from what I heard, but other than that he was down right pleasant. As long as I gave him food and put him in the sun during the day he tended to stay out of Ralsei's way and leave him alone.

I also had the presents that Ralsei and I had bought for my parents and sister in the trunk, which was nice. It'd be further on in the week before we could give them out, Christmas was Wednesday and we had landed on Sunday, but even still I was happy that I had them and could put them under the tree early, instead of what I normally did which was last minute wrapping and tossing.

We finally got to their house, a pretty nice 4 bedroom with a lot of space, at about 8 in the morning. I looked to Ralsei and smiled. “Hey lover boy, we're here. Let's go meet the parents”

He woke up slowly and yawned, giving a huge stretch as he did. I had taught him well and he made a big noise to get the full effect of the stretch. I had to admit, watching him do that made my heart pound a bit faster. This whole “waiting until he was ready” thing had caused me some issues as of late. I knew he couldn't be doing it on purpose but it seemed like everything he did made me more and more attracted to him.

Flowey looked at the house. “This is where your parents live? Why did you ever move out!? That place looks huge!”

I shrugged. “Didn't wanna live with my parents for the rest of my life, ya know? Not that I don't like them but… living with them made things a bit difficult. Now… they do have three dogs so be on guard for that. They will growl and bark but they won't bite.” I looked at Ralsei. “They shouldn't bite. They've never bitten anyone before anyway…” I unbuckled my seatbelt and opened my phone. I used an app to open my father’s garage door, and it filled me with an odd sense of joy to see that it still worked. There was a sense of security in that, that I always had a home here… No matter what.

I hopped out of the car and went around to the passenger side. I opened the door for Ralsei and gave him a kiss when he got out. I then grabbed the flower from the back seat. “Here, Ralsei, can you hold him?” He nodded and took Flowey. “Alright sweet I’m going to get the stuff.”

I went to the trunk and grabbed our two suitcases, then grabbed the bag of presents. They were super important so I was determined to make sure that they came in with us. With that done I closed the trunk and walked up the driveway. Ralsei followed behind me and I put down most of the stuff in the garage. When I was sure he was inside I closed the garage door and turned to look at Ralsei and Flowey. “Okay so… a few things before we go in. Flowey, these are my parents and my stepmom will not be afraid to pull out the weed whacker if you act up. I don’t want that so do your best to be good okay?”

The flower sighed but nodded. “Fine, but I don’t promise to like any of them and if they piss me off I reserve my right to be a dick to them.”

“The consequences of your actions are your own.” I turned my attention to Ralsei. “As for you. They don’t… necessarily know that we’re dating. They know I’m dating someone, I haven’t told them who. I’m not particularly worried if they find out, honestly if we were to walk in there and kiss it wouldn’t bother me one bit. I just wanted to let them have a moment to get to know you as your own person before they saw you as my boyfriend.. Nothing against you, but people that they meet under the pretense of ‘my boyfriend’ or ‘my partner’ tend to be known permanently as “My boyfriend” or in extreme cases… “What’s-his-bucket”. I’d rather they know you as a person first.”

He nodded in response. “I can understand that. Though it’s a little early. Are we sure they’ll be awake?”

I nodded. “I promise you, without a shadow of a doubt, they will be up and playing Overwatch… And they’ll be more than happy to meet you. Both of you.” I leaned over flowey and kissed Ralsei, avoiding the well placed bite that Flowey almost gave me. With that, I took a deep breath and walked into the house.

We were greeted immediately by barking and growling. I held out my hands to calm the dogs. I would rather Ralsei not be assaulted immediately. My parents had three dogs, a German Shepherd Lab mix, a pit-bull lab mix, and a dachshund chihuahua mix. The Chihuahua was the most annoying by far. I stepped further into the house and put the suitcases off to the side, then I reached around and grabbed Flowey. He was getting heavier and heavier… It reminded me that I still needed to talk to Alphys about rigging up some wheeled mode of transportation for him… with some limitations, of course. I set him on the bar and he looked around.

“Well it’s not the worst I’ve seen, it’s certainly cleaner than your room, you filthy peasant.”

I flushed a bit at that. “Thanks Flowey, now can we not talk about my room?”

“What and the fact that you never keep it clean?” I jumped at the new voice and turned to see my stepmom walking out with a big smile.

“I like her. She knows the truth of the matter.”

“Shut up Flowey.” I walked over to her and bent down to give her a hug. She was… short. With me being at 6 foot 4 she came to about eye level with my chest. It bugged the shit out of her. “Hey mom, how are things?”

She hugged me back and smiled up at me. “Oh it’s going good, kind of weird not having you over every week but other than that it’s been good.” She took a step back and looked at my companions. She walked up to Ralsei with a smile and held out her hand, they were about the same height, he was just a small bit taller than her. “You must be Ralsei. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Rori has talked about you a lot, though he left out a few details…”

Ralsei smiled and shook her hand “It’s wonderful to meet you too, he’s talked about you a fair bit too.”

“That’s… a bit terrifying. Hopefully it was all good.”

“Oh for sure, he holds you in extremely high regards.”

I could actively feel the blush coming. “Alright that’s enough of that. Mom this is Flowey.” I gestured to the flower and she turned to look at him. I glared at Flowey and mouthed “Be Good”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah whatever hi.”

She looked a small bit surprised. “Rori… you have a talking flower for a friend…”

“Well you did say that before I have kids I should get a plant.”

“I said pets…”

“You still said I should get a flower. So I did. And he just so happens to also talk… that was just… a weird coincidence.”

She sighed “I guess you’re not wrong. Hello there Flowey. I’m Brenna.”

“Okay. That’s nice.”

I could see the twitch in her eye. That wasn’t good. I pointed at her and then at him and made a cutting motion, then when I was sure he was watching I mouthed, “She’s going to kill you. Be nice.”

His eyes went wide and I saw a sudden shift in his expression, quickly turning from the pouting angry face to a positively happy smile. “I-I mean… Uh… Hi there Brenna! It’s such a pleasure to meet you, you have a wonderful home!” He looked at me a bit hopefully and I nodded that was better.

“Mom I’m going to get our stuff into the room. Do you mind if I leave Flowey here for a little bit?” he could use the attitude adjustment that would come from spending time with my mom.

“Of course. I’d like to get to know him better” She was eyeing him suspiciously. Say what you will about humans, some of them had an uncanny ability to tell exactly what was going on. My mom was one of them. I took Ralsei and we carried our shit into one of the rooms, closing the door behind us. It was a pretty decently sized room, not too big but not too small either. It was the room I had lived in for a long time and it felt good to be back. The walls were painted a nice Royal blue, with grey on the baseboards and trim, save for the wall by the door which had a painting of the Hylian insignia with Link and Zelda on either side of it. I had drawn it years ago, and my mom had painted it in after I had stopped living with them a few years back. The bed was nice and big just like I remembered it, and it looked warm as all hell. I put the suitcases over by the corner and tossed the presents on the bed before sitting down on the bed and laying back. Ralsei climbed on the bed and laid next to me.

“So we’re… sh-sharing a room?” I looked over at him and he was looking around the room. Posters and other geeky things were abundant in the room and it was a perfect representation of how I was back in high school, not that much had changed honestly.

“Well yeah, I mean unless you don’t want to. There’s another room for a reason.”

He smiled and gave me a kiss. “Of course I don’t mind. We’re dating after all. It’s not too weird for us to sleep in the same room.”

That made me incredibly happy to hear. I had honestly been waiting for this. A time away from the house and all of our friends where we could just enjoy our life and have a good time without any obligations. I leaned over and kissed him, and that quickly turned into a make out session. For once I didn’t actually initiate it. I was a bit shocked when Ralsei climbed on top of me and kept me there, but I wasn’t complaining at all. We kept at it for a long time and it felt really nice to just be there together, as a couple.

When I figured it was probably getting suspicious for me to not be out and about, which took a fair amount of time, I pulled back, my breathing laboured. I looked up at him and pretended that I didn’t definitely have a large amount of attraction to him, which was showing itself exactly where Ralsei was sitting. I hoped he didn’t notice but I had a strong feeling he did, judging from the blush on his face and the slight wiggle he did. He had a pretty cocky smirk on his face… that bastard he knew exactly what he was doing. “You know… that’s not fair to do to a man.”

He smiled innocently at me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The way he looked down at me, so much love and… admittedly… lust in his eyes… Jesus that was straight out of the best of pornos. “But if you’re good… I might take time to figure it out and let you know.”

It was a bit awkward but it worked way too well on me. It took everything I had not to take him then and there. “W-We should get back out there.. Before… Mom starts suspecting something…”

He gave me another kiss then stood up. I had to admit, I was a bit saddened by it. If it weren’t for the fact that we had just got here, I definitely had a few better ideas than going back out there. I was only hoping his comment wasn’t just teasing, I’d have to talk to Alice about that… Lord knows that’s the only place he could have learned that kind of shit.

I sighed and kicked off my socks and shoes, then stood up and grabbed Ralsei’s hand. I kissed him again before leaning in and whispering into his ear. “I look forward to experiencing what you’ve studied first hand.” I nibbled his ear a bit and he let out a small squeak. Two could play at that game, and I had been playing it for a lot longer than he had. My revenge served I let go and walked out of the room. Flowey and Mom were gone and that worried me. Looking around I found them in the front room sitting at the table. My dad was sitting across from my mom and watching the two of them. I supposed they had come to an understanding because Mom had pulled out a deck of cards and passed them out. There was a pile in front of Flowey and he was staring at them confused. Mom laid down a card and then looked at him. I guessed this was the first round because he just looked up at her.

When he spoke it was soft, and a bit concerned. “I… I don’t have hands…”

She raised an eyebrow. “You’re a sentient talking flower. Figure it out.”

My dad and I snickered at this, but I stayed out of it, leaning against the door frame and continuing to watch as Flowey looked to my dad. He picked up the cards and flipped them over for the flower, who nodded appreciatively before staring at them. What happened next was quite possibly the most amusing thing I had seen in a long time. He concentrated on the cards for a minute, looking between them and the card that Mom had just laid down, then out of nowhere, he slammed his face down on the table and wiggled his leaf, separating out a card from the rest. He then lifted his head, slammed it on the card again and slid it towards the pile. This was going to be a great Christmas.

The sight of it was too much and I lost my composure, bursting into laughter. My dad finally took this moment to notice I was watching and smirked “You’ve got an amusing friend here Rori.” He stood up and walked up to me, giving me a hug. He then looked at me and gestured to the back door. I nodded and followed him outside. We avoided the charge of the hounds and sat down. He lit up a cigarette. “So how have you been kid?”

I shrugged “Working hard, playing harder. You know me.”

“That I do.” He had a big smile on his face. See the advantage of having moved out on my own was that now my visits were a treat instead of just expected, so my dad really truly enjoyed them. We hadn’t always had the best relationship, but it had gotten better since I was younger and I was so happy for that.

“So… what do you think of Flowey?”

“Well… it’s a little weird to have a talking flower in my house, but you always had weird friends so that’s nothing too terribly new. I’m just hoping he doesn’t go all… fuck… What’s that one movie that your mother loves so much?”

I smirked. “Little Shop of Horrors?”

“Yeah that one. As long as he doesn’t do that then he’s fine in my book.”

“Oh don’t worry, I already warned him that mom has weed killer and gardening shears. He knows the consequences of not playing nice.”

“Well that’s good I suppose. How’d you end up with him?”

“Oh! Uh… Well Frisk and Mettaton gave him to me to take care of for a bit.”

He blinked. “I keep forgetting that you know Mettaton… Like… personally.”

“Yeah he’s… odd. But hey he’s a pretty cool guy so I mean… I can’t really complain. He can be fun to hang out with.” I felt at that point like my impression of Mettaton changed every 10 minutes. I just never fully knew how to feel about him. 

“Well that’s good. What about your roommate? Is he here too or did you decide to leave him behind?”

I blushed, thinking of a few minutes ago. “Oh no he’s here… Uh… I think he’s getting used to the room still…”

My dad eyed me suspiciously. “The room? Not his room?”

Well… there goes the hope of keeping this hidden for a bit. I hated that my dad picked up on shit like that. “Uh… yeah no sorry his room. Long drive.”

He raised a brow. “Rori are you two sharing a room?”

I couldn’t lie to him. I used to be able to, and sure little white lies here and there were still manageable, but this was one of those things that he would figure out eventually whether I hid it or not, and it was almost impossible to hide. “Uh…. Would you be mad if I said yes?”

“No. Is he that ‘Really cool person’ you’re dating?”

I blushed a bit. “Y-Yes…” I wasn’t scared or anything, I just hated having conversations like this.

He nodded. “Alright. That makes sense actually, and honestly I had kinda figured that was how things were going.”

I hated that I couldn’t hide shit from my dad, no matter how much I tried. It made things real awkward. “Yeah… he’s been a real sweetheart…”

“Better than your previous… partners?” I could tell he was using the term partners very loosely, which was astounding considering that partners was already a loose term for a relationship.

“Significantly better. I dunno, there’s something incredibly good about Ralsei. Honestly… I’m a little afraid that I’m gonna corrupt the poor guy.”

He shrugged “You won’t. I can tell this relationship is something special, particularly in the fact that you didn’t tell me too much about him, and that tends to be a good sign that the relationship has gone far.” He put out his smoke and stood up. “You’re gonna do fine kid, I promise you that. Now let’s get inside before your mom and the flower end up hurting something.”

I nodded and stood up with him, happy to get out of the cold. When I got inside, my knees almost being taken out by the pitbull running in with me, Ralsei was standing in the living room, looking a little bit lost. When he saw me, he smiled. When he saw my dad, a look of slight panic crossed his face. “O-Oh hi there!”

My dad walked up to him and smiled, shaking his hand. “Hello there Ralsei. My name is Dave. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Ralsei nodded and buried his face in his scarf a bit, shaking back. “The pleasure is all mine. You’re Rori’s Dad?”

“That I am. Would you be willing to chat for a bit?”

My eyes widened and so did Ralsei’s, but I nodded to him. He should be fine… hopefully.

“Uh… S-sure! Um… yeah that’s fine!”

He nodded “Rori go help out your mother for a bit, I’m sure she could use it right about now… or maybe Flowey will… I’m not sure which at this point.” He then walked to the office.

I reached over and squeezed Ralsei’s hand gently. “You’ll be fine. He looks intimidating but he’s a teddy bear I promise.”

Ralsei nodded then followed my father. With a good bit of anxiety, I went into the front room.

 

______________________________________________________________

Ralsei was shaking a bit with nerves as he walked into the office. Dave closed the door and gestured to one of the desk chairs. The office was painted similarly blue, but a lighter colour than Rori’s old room. It had a few pictures up, including the rebel and empire symbols from Star Wars. Rori had practically forced Ralsei to sit down and watch the movies before he came down here, said it would be a good way to get on his parents’ good side. There was also a vintage poster for A New Hope hanging up above Dave’s desk, it looked like it was signed by Mark Hamill, which Ralsei actually thought was pretty cool. There was also a bunch of little figurines scattered about the desk. Most of them were from that one game that Rori played… Overwatch? Ralsei played it sometimes too, though he wasn’t very good at it. 

“Have a seat Ralsei.” His tone was kind, but authoritative. It was the same Dad tone that Rori got from time to time. Come to think of it, there were a lot of similarities between the two. Dave was a small bit shorter than Rori, by a few inches only, his hair was darker, being a dark brown instead of the dirty blonde that Rori sported, with a thinner face. Other than that, they were practically identical, there was no question over who Rori’s father was.

Ralsei followed directions and sat, playing with his hands as David sat and looked him up and down.

“Well I can see why Rori likes you that much is sure.”

Ralsei was not expecting that. “O-Oh…. Is that a good thing?”

“I mean yeah. You’re pretty much spot on his type so that’s good for you too,” he shrugged. “So… tell me about yourself. What do you do for a living?”

“Oh… Uh… I do volunteer work for the hospital Rori works at but… other than that I mostly just… occasionally pick up shifts at Grillby’s and help him out…”

David nodded “Understandable. If it’s not rude of me to ask, did you come here with the monsters or…?”

Ralsei shook his head. “No sir, I uh… I’m not actually a monster…”

This seemed to surprise Dave. “Really? Forgive me if this is rude but you look a lot like two of the monsters Rori tends to hang out with.”

Ralsei laughed a little. “Oh yeah no we get that a lot. I’m… actually what’s known as a Darkner? We uh… I came from a slightly different… you know… reality.”

Dave laughed a bit. “Oh yeah? Figures Rori would go for the exotic route. Is your fur naturally black?”

Ralsei shook his head again. “No, I uh… used some magic to… change it. I prefer it like this, not that I mind how I naturally look but… I like this a bit better.”

He nodded “Understandable. So you can use magic?”

Ralsei smiled bright and held up his hand, Flames dancing across his fingers. “Yeah! Though I don’t generally use it for fighting… and it’s limited. I’m nowhere near the level that Toriel is at. Most of my magic is useful for healing people and making incapacitating people.”

“So you do crowd control then? Cool.”

He nodded. “I suppose it is pretty cool.” Ralsei had some doubts about his ability. Toriel could fling fires like it was nothing, Sans could fling people like they were nothing, Undyne could summon spears out of absolutely nothing, and even Rori had his own form of magic, even if he didn’t realize it, but Ralsei always felt like his ability was lacking a bit… not that that upset him all that much, but he did sometimes wish he could do more.

“So… How long have you been dating Rori?”

And so it begins. Ralsei had been waiting for this but that didn’t stop him from being nervous.  _ Take a deep breath and relax, Ralsei. You’ll be fine.  _ He thought to himself. “Uh for… a few months now actually.”

He took a few minutes to reflect on that. “Hmm… You’ve already lasted longer than most. That’s a good sign.”

Ralsei blinked and looked a bit surprised. “O-Oh? What do you mean by that?”

“Well… Usually when Rori gets into a relationship it doesn’t last too terribly long. Either he breaks it off because of one reason or another, or they break it off for some reason. The fact that you’ve made it past what I call the Trial Period.”

Ralsei nodded. “Well… I really like him so I’m hoping we continue on for a good while.”

Dave nodded. “He seems to really like you too. I guess I better be careful, from the looks of it I might end up with a son in law pretty soon.” he chuckled at it, indicating it as a playful comment, but Ralsei blushed a bit. Dave saw this and raised an eyebrow. “Wait… you two aren’t…”

Ralsei held out his hands. “No! No no not… yet… He hasn’t proposed or anything like that, though the subject does keep getting brought up lately… by… you know… our friends and what not…”

Dave shrugged “Well admittedly Rori is definitely ready to settle down and start that next part of his life. He’s told me a thousand times that he’s sick of the whole dating thing and that he wanted the next relationship he was in to be the last.” Dave looked Ralsei over and smiled. “Honestly, think he picked a good one, if you two do end up going to that point.”

This caused Ralsei to squeak, blush a deep red, and hide firmly within his scarf. “Oh! Th-thank you sir… I uh… Thank you!” he was definitely not expecting that, but there it was. He was fairly certain that he had just gotten approval, something he wasn’t necessarily expecting.


	15. A Foreboding Dance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ralsei and Rori share their first dance, among other things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow so this chapter was interesting to write. I'm hoping I got the lore of this story mostly correct with the actual lore of the game. Of course some things are going to have to be changed around to adapt for the format of the story itself. Regardless, Have fun with this chapter guys, I know I did ;)

Dancing with your partner for the first time… It fills you with determination.

 

Ralsei came out with a big smile on his face. I asked him about what happened and he told me that my father approved of him, and that was cool. I still felt like that hadn’t been all of it, but I didn’t pry too much. Later on in the day my parents had decided to go and play Overwatch together. That was a pretty normal habit of theirs, they’d go off and do their thing and I’d do mine. I was happy that our relationship was at a point where we didn’t have to be in the same room constantly to know that we appreciated each other. 

I however had my own plans that I wanted to go through, so I pushed the coffee table off to the side, hooked up my phone to the receiver, set Flowey on the aforementioned table and turned to Ralsei. “You mentioned you don’t know how to dance right?”

Ralsei nodded. He had been watching me with a large amount of curiosity on his face. “Uh… yeah I never learned how. Not one of the things I had to do before.”

I smiled. “Well you’re going to learn now. There will be a time when you have to be at a wedding and you’ll have to dance at it, so come on let’s go.” I picked up my phone and threw on Everything I Do by Bryan Adams. It was a good song to dance to, honestly. I walked up to him and took his hand, before starting to sway to the music.

I took it slow at first, putting one of his hands in mine, the other at his waist. As the song carried on we started to move faster, utilizing the space of the room. It was nice. I felt more at peace in that moment than I ever had before. There was nothing there but the music, Ralsei and me. It wasn’t long until he nuzzled his head under my chin, picking up the movements pretty easily. I closed my eyes and held him close, letting the music take over. After a while I felt a light shining in my eyes, but I chose to ignore it and figure out what it was later. I spun him around the room, our movements as natural as breathing, as long as we were together I felt like we could do anything. It was an extremely nice feeling, I had to admit, and the song ended much too soon. When it did I heard clapping, as well as a whistle. I opened my eyes and the strange light hadn’t left, but my Dad and stepmom were standing in the dining room, watching us with a smirk. 

“Hey Rori, thought you couldn’t dance huh?” My mom piped up, and I got a deep blush across my cheeks.

“Well… Normally I can’t but… you know. Ralsei’s somethin’ special.” I looked down at the goat boy and he stayed nuzzled into my chest. He seemed pretty content to be there.

“It was good son.” My dad smiled “Though I have to ask… what the hell is that?” He pointed up and I followed his gesture, then gasped. Up above us was the source of the light.

Two hearts were close together, touching faintly and spinning in the air above us. One was a deep pink, the other was a dark forest green. As they spun they left little light trails behind them, though they weren’t moving too terribly fast.

“Uh… Ralsei… Love…”

“Hmmm?”

“Look up please?”

He looked up and blinked, then blushed a deep red. “O-Oh…”

“What the hell is that? Why are there suddenly hearts floating in the air?”

Ralsei was stunned firmly into silence, and thus didn’t answer me. I was surprised when the answer came from Flowey.

The flower was watching the hearts and, presumably, had been for a while. There was a small look of hunger in his eyes and I really hoped that didn’t mean he wanted to consume them in some way. I didn’t know what they were, but something told me that him having those would be a bad idea. “Those hearts are your SOULS… tThey’re the culminations of your beings…”

I blinked. “Wait what? We actually have those?” Even my dad was stunned. It’s not that I disbelieved we had souls… I just… didn’t have any solid proof like this. “And if we do, which one is mine?”

“Of course you have one. Almost everyone has one.”

A small voice came from under me. “Yours is the pink one…” Ralsei had finally decided to speak up, I suppose.

“How do you know that babe?”

“Because the green one is mine... “

My dad decided to interject. “Wait a minute. What do you mean ‘almost everyone’ has one?” He was looking pointedly at Flowey.

Flowey rolled his eyes. “Well you see, some people don’t. I know of two people who don’t have any souls… well… rather… One person that doesn’t have a soul, and one person who has a lot of souls, but none of them are theirs…. You don’t wanna meet them.”

“And who would they be?” My dad was in full on scientific mode, I was firmly distracted by the hearts… or our SOULS I suppose… floating above us.

Flowey sighed. “Well one of them is me. I don’t have a soul of my own. That’s… kinda why I’m incapable of feeling emotions.” He looked at me and sighed “But I’m doing my best. I’m getting better than I was thanks to your son, the bastard.”

I was about to touch the souls, spinning so carefully and daintily above us, when I was knocked out of my reverie by his comment. “Hey, no need to be a dick.”

My dad rolled his eyes. “Okay so who’s the second one?”

Flowey didn’t look him in the eyes. “I’d… Really rather not say if I’m being perfectly honest.” There was a strange look of fear in his eyes that I hadn’t every really seen before. Don’t get me wrong, there were things that Flowey didn’t like, so he avoided them if he could, or diverted attention away from them, but I had never seen such legitimate, almost crippling fear in his expression before.

My dad thought on that. He seemed to pick up on the same thing I did, even if he had only known the flower for a little while. “Okay… so don’t say the name but… why don’t you want to say the name?”

Flowey sighed. “This person… They’re evil, and I don’t mean in the way that some people might see me as evil. They are legitimately the most evil thing this world has ever seen. They… they are more than willing to steal souls over and over and over to feed their own desire to destroy everything, and have done it in multiple timelines before. Entire realities have been utterly destroyed because of this individual… partially due to your friend Frisk.” He looked at me and I blinked.

“What? No that’s impossible. Frisk wouldn’t hurt a soul.” I detached from Ralsei, much to both of our dismay, and our souls floated back into our chests. It didn’t hurt, strangely enough, it just felt a little colder. I went and sat down on the couch, Ralsei sitting next to me silently, listening to the flower speak.

“Yeah well in this timeline that’s the truth, but in another? Not so much.” he sighed. “See… Frisk has a very particular ability… one that I used to have, until… well..” he lifted his leaves and let them drop in a gesture that I had learned to associate with a shrug. “They came in. Anyway… They have this ability to reset things, send them back to the beginning of the day that they fell into the underground. It’s through their determination that they’re allowed to do it, ya know? You humans have more magic than you think.”

“How could one person have that much power though?”

“Well…. whenever Frisk died they were determined to come back and finish what they started. It was kind of like a game, and were determined to beat it. Ultimately they beat… well… me, and we both set everyone free, getting them out of the underground and that’s… well that’s how we all ended up here.”

“That was a good while ago now though…”

“Exactly, but we don’t know if there is a time frame on when Frisk can reset again. Honestly I think Sans is just waiting for it… It hit him the hardest. Save for me, he was the only other person that had knowledge that this was going on.” He shook his head. “I’ve died too many times to be too terribly happy about it to be perfectly honest. I’m just glad that this timeline’s Frisk ended up choosing to be nice before things got too far.”

I was reeling a bit at this information. This was nothing like what I was expecting. “So…” I sighed “Okay so what does this person have to do with it, and how does that tie to Frisk?”

“The person who steals souls… They used to be a close friend of mine… Like a sibling, but they ended up dying and, ultimately, getting me killed shortly afterwards. Both of our souls got destroyed at that moment. That being said, at some point they… managed to come back… I don’t know how. I think it happened because they were buried under where Frisk fell every time… Their spirit, not their soul mind you, must have seeped into Frisk’s mind somewhere along the line, in one of the timelines. From there they went through and kept collecting souls. Frisks that went through killing everyone completely but ended up wanting their friends back… they sold their soul to… this person… to bring the world back.”

My dad sat down with a big “oof” and processed this information. “Is it safe to assume that this timeline is safe?”

Flowey did another ‘shrug’. “Yeah I think so. Ultimately by not following with the person’s wants and desires, and freeing the underworld fully and truly, then not resetting… Well the person was effectively stopped ya know? The chances of them showing up here is astronomically small, but I refuse to fuck that up by speaking their name… it's not certain that it'll do anything, but I'm not gonna risk it. Even thinking about them leaves me nervous.”

“Okay… so that’s good, just don't say their name or think about them and we should be good... Now let’s get back to the original subject, because that one is a bit depressing and if I’m being perfectly honest with ya, I don't want to risk it either.” I reached over and squeezed Ralsei’s hand. “Why did our… er… Soul… hearts pop out and start spinning?”

Flowey rolled his eyes. “Priorities are straight I see. Also it’s SOULs not souls.”

I blinked “I… don’t hear a difference between the two… honestly…”

“We’re talking SOULs with a capital S-O-U-L. There is a difference. But whatever, that’s not something I’m willing to go into right now. SOULs can pop out for any large variety of reasons. Dying or FIGHTing are good examples of it.”

“Or…” My boyfriend finally spoke up. It made me jump a bit. “Moments where you’re extremely happy and content. Though it would seem as though humans can’t naturally get them to pop out on their own, it would appear that it only happens in the presence of monsters or Darkners…”

“You looked so surprised when you saw them… why was that?” I was curious.

“Well... “ he thought on it. “From what I’ve read and researched… No one is allowed to touch your SOUL… and SOULs aren’t allowed to touch in general....”

“But ours were touching…. That’s… odd, if it’s not something that’s supposed to happen.”

“Well it’s extremely taboo. The only person that is supposed to touch your SOUL… Or rather the only other SOUL that should be able to touch yours… is… well…”

I blinked “What? Who?” I was curious now, and I hated being left hanging. Surprising me yet again, it was Flowey that ended up answering me.

“Your soulmate…”

That took me by surprise, and caused a blush to fill my cheeks. “O-Oh…. Well then… I… okay…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is going to be filled with sin! You have been warned


	16. Now, We'll Have the Goat.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ralsei and Rori spend a very wonderful night together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of you were probably waiting for this, some of you probably don't want to read it. 
> 
> There's going to be some sin in this chapter SO I'd recommend that if you don't want to read through smut then read until they go into the bedroom, then read the last line. Those are the important parts right there.

The heat of the moment, it fills you with determination.

 

When dinner came around, I were extremely happy. My mom always cooked amazing food, and I was always thrilled to help. She decided to make a Braised beef bolognese, something she only made when I was around. She had this thing about pressure cookers. She didn’t like them, didn’t trust them. She had seen too many pictures of what can happen when a pressure cooker was used improperly, and this was a woman that jumped when she opened the tube of those pre-made croissants, so it wasn’t hard to imagine why something that could blow up and embed itself in the ceiling with no warning made her nervous. That being said, I had no problem with using them and had taken the time to learn to use them properly, without the whole blowing up thing.

I guess I couldn’t say I had no problem with them, things that have a chance to explode after long periods of slow anticipation were never fun.

Ralsei ended up helping as well, testing out his baking skills earlier in the day and making a wonderful red velvet cake. His logic on it was that it was a special occasion, being the first time he met my parents, so it called for celebratory desserts. I had come to the conclusion that baking was his favourite thing to do in the kitchen, and it made sense. He was damned good at it. I still baked from time to time, but I generally allowed him to take over on that aspect of life, since I had taken over cooking the actual meals.

When the food was done and served we all sat around enjoying it, even Flowey couldn’t complain. He almost gobbled all of his up before any of us had a chance. It had been a bit of a bear to get him to be allowed to eat at the table with us, but I had finally convinced my dad to let him.

“Dad he’s a person too, and he shouldn’t be excluded. He’s a part of my family.”

“He’s a flower, Rori.”

“He wasn’t always a flower. Besides, you have to admit that there’s a part of you that likes him.”

“Whether or not I like him is beside the point. He’s a flower, and unless he’s going to be a centerpiece, which I highly doubt any of us wants, he doesn’t belong at the table.”

“Dad again, he’s sentient, he’s a living breathing speaking being. He should eat with us. It’d be rude to force him to not eat with us.”

“Does he even eat?”

“Well yeah! Of course he does. He doesn’t particularly like lemons… But he does have a certain affinity for chocolate. I usually pass my deserts to him… Maybe that’s why he’s gotten so big…”

“What does he even do with the food? He has no stomach… or ass…”

I shrugged. It wasn’t something I typically discussed with my unconventional friend. “I dunno. Maybe he converts it to energy and lets out oxygen? You know… like most plants?”

He sighed. He could already tell that I was dead set on this, and any more arguing on his part would be a complete waste of time. “Fine, but he better know how to behave.”

“In this family? Behaving won’t be hard at all for him.”

So Flowey got to sit at the table with us. I hope he appreciated how much I looked out for him. I knew he wasn’t a conventionally nice person but I had this need to protect him… be a champion of sorts to him.

Halfway through shoveling face I finally decided to take a break and speak. “By the way, mom, everyone loved yourpink stuff. Papyrus was asking about the recipe.”

She smiled at that. “Papyrus… he’s the tall skeleton right?”

I nodded. “He’s a sweetheart. He’d actually really love this meal, I’ll have to get a pressure cooker so I can make it for him. He’s all about spaghetti.”

“Good. You should bring him down at some point, I’d love to meet him, and see how he cooks.”

I thought on it for a moment but didn’t get a chance to respond, Ralsei spoke up before I had a chance.

“His spaghetti is… it’s not bad. It could use work though. I think Undyne taught him and… Well her cooking is good but… she has a habit of… Uh…”

“Setting the kitchen on fire because she gets overly excited?” I jumped in. “Yeah. Again the food tastes alright, but it tends to be a bit singed at times. I mean I love him to death, I love all the monsters up there, but their exuberance and excitement to impress tends to lead to some unfortunate if not down right dangerous circumstances.”

“Which is why you hang out with them?” My dad shot the comment at me so fast it almost gave me whiplash. Luckily for me, and unluckily for him, I could fire back just as quickly.

“Well yeah, what’s life without a little trouble? I thought you already knew that, considering who’s birth you facilitated.”

He couldn’t fight me on that one. Not only did I bash on him, but I bashed on myself with it. There was a sort of unspoken agreement that if you were ready to sink the boat you’re on just to kill the captain you pretty much won. I was usually the only one to fully embrace and utilize that rule. It didn’t hurt that I had also managed to bash on my sister in the process. It was the rarely heard of triple whammy.

When we finished with dinner I picked up the dishes, and Ralsei yawned a bit. I raised an eyebrow and looked over at him. “Tired already babe?”

“Time difference between home and here. It would be… well I’m not fully sure what time but considerably later there than it is here.” I knew what he meant. I had lived in Minnesota for a couple of months now and I was still feeling the effects of it. I couldn’t count the amount of times I had woken up at 4 in the morning thinking it was closer to 6.

I stood up and took his hand “I'm gonna get this one to sleep, preferably before he passes out on the plates.”

My parents nodded and excused us.

“Can you watch Flowey before you go to bed? He should be fine, but…”

Brenna nodded and looked at the flower, who was already nodding off. He was apparently just as acclimated to Minnesota time as I was. Making sure that he was secure, I grabbed Ralsei and dragged him over to the room. I was honestly kinda ready to get some sleep myself. We got to the room and Ralsei gave me a kiss. “I’m gonna grab my bag and get changed.”

I raised an eyebrow but nodded regardless. He had his reasons, and it kinda made sense. We hadn’t exactly seen each other naked at that point, so changing in front of each other would be an awkward process at this stage. I shrugged to myself and pulled off my shirt and pants. Boxers were mans best friend. I only hoped Ralsei would be okay with it, though I had packed a pair of pajamas as a just in case situation. I pulled back the covers, a red sheet with a Harley Davidson blanket over it, and crawled in, pulling out my phone and scrolling through imgur while I waited for Ralsei to return.

I didn’t hear the door open or close when he came in; he had gotten really good at surprising me with his entrances. “Um… So…”

I looked up from the phone and my jaw dropped. There was my boyfriend, leaning up against the door with a huge blush on his face. He was wearing one of my shirts, which hung down well past his waist, covering up all the naughty bits. My eyes continued to scan him only to find that he was also wearing quite possibly the sexiest pair of thigh high socks I had ever seen. I didn’t know if I could actually speak so I elected to give myself a moment to collect my thoughts. In order to do this properly, I closed my phone and put it on the bedside table. When I returned to look at him he was looking a bit nervous.

“D… Does it look bad?”

I blushed a bit. Shit, I didn’t want him thinking that… “N-No! You look… amazing… Jaw droppingly so. I just… I wasn’t expecting it is all…”

He nodded and sauntered towards me. When the hell did he learn to saunter? Who taught him to saunter? I sat up and watched as he moved towards me. He crawled up on the bed and pressed his lips to mine. It was a chaste kiss at first, but as time went on it expanded into something more: a needy, lust filled kiss that demanded full attention. He put his hand on me and pushed me, gently, so I was laying down. His fur was soft, and it felt inexplicably good as it trailed down my chest. He slid his hand to my waist, then traced small patterns along my side. It caused a noticeable reaction in me. My waist was incredibly sensitive, so his light touches, mixed with the gentle brushes of his fur was driving me wild. Luckily for me, he, didn’t continue that for too long. If he had I probably wouldn’t have been able to show restraint. Instead he slid his hand under the waistline of my boxers. Against my instincts and desires, I grabbed his wrist and stopped him.

Ralsei went a bit wide eyed and pulled back from the kiss, looking at me a small bit worried. “D-Do you not want this?”

I shook my head “No I do, believe me, I’ve wanted this for a long time… but… I want to make sure that you want this…”

Ralsei smiled down at me. “I want this. Believe me, I do.”

That was enough for me. The tent that I was currently pitching was screaming at me to let him do what he wanted to do, but I wasn’t going to give it what it wanted yet. It’d have to wait. “Then I need you to get up for me, for just a second.”

He looked confused, but rolled off of me. I missed the pressure immediately. It just felt wrong to not have him there, but it was a necessity. I slid to the edge of the bed and went to my bag. I reached in and pulled out a small bottle; it wasn’t a lot, but it would do well enough for this. I walked over, put the bottle on the bedside table, then turned to Ralsei.

“If we’re doing this, we’re doing it right. This is your first time so I’m gonna make it good, got it?”

He nodded, staring at my boxers and biting his lip as he did. The amount of desire in those beautiful green eyes worked to push me over the edge, but I had to resist somewhat. Grabbing him and ravishing, as much as I wanted to, wouldn’t do well for his first time. I went to the edge of the bed and pushed him down, it was my turn to be on top. I positioned myself between his legs, leaned down and kissed him. I trailed my kisses to his chin, then his jaw line. I moved to his ear and nibbled, my breath hot against him. I could feel his own breathing grow laboured as I worked my magic. I moved my hand down between his legs and let out a small noise when I found out that he had decided to do away with underwear entirely. I sure as hell wasn’t complaining. I took his shaft in my hand and he gasped, his eyes closing as I worked him, making long, slow strokes. I was shocked, but not disappointed, to find out that his anatomy, at least in that area, was actually fairly close to ours, not that that would have stopped me. I loved him, and would have gone forth with it regardless.

I whispered a gentle “I love you” into his ear, my voice low and husky, then trailed kisses down his face. He let out a small whimper and bucked into my hand. If I had any doubts about his desire before, they were fast to dissolve now. With my free hand I grabbed the hem of his shirt, lifting it up and away from his body. Separating my lips from his skin I pulled the shirt off of him, refusing to stop working him. I didn’t want him to stop feeling pleasure for even a second. I smirked and ran my hand along the tip of his dick, grabbing up as much of the precum as I could before rubbing it down the shaft. I gently squeezed and bit down on his neck, sucking with every intent to leave a mark, even if it would be hidden by his fur. He treated me with the most wonderful moan I had ever heard, and I wanted more.

I decided I wanted to reward him for singing such a beautiful song for me. I trailed my kisses down his neck and over his chest, licking and nipping where I could. Honestly, I could have spent the whole time just kissing his perfect body, but I had something I wanted to do. He looked down at me when I got to his waist, confused.

“What… are you doing?”

I smirked up at him but didn’t answer, choosing instead to take his tip into my mouth. I continued to stroke down the shaft as I swirled my tongue around his tip. I had to admit, he tasted good. It was one of those moments where you realize you never want anything else filling your mouth. He treated me with another moan, this one considerably more needy, and wrapped his legs around my head, making my heart soar. He was being a very good boy, and I was bound and determined to reinforce the idea that good boys get good rewards. I decided to see how far I could go, it had been a while since I had done this, so I prepared myself, and slid my lips down his length, moving my tongue ahead of my progress to properly lubricate him. I was taking it slow, going piece by piece, and that was apparently a bit to slow for Ralsei. He bucked into me and ended up jamming himself down my throat. I was actually fairly proud of myself, only a single tear came from the shock, and I didn’t gag on it. That was more a testament to my will than his size. Regardless, I took it in stride, and grabbed his balls, squeezing and rubbing gently. I wondered, in that moment, if he had ever had relief. He felt positively full, and that added a new sense of desire to my ministrations. I hummed as I moved up and down his shaft, giving him the full treatment. I looked up at him and raked my teeth gently against his length.

It’s my best guess, thinking back on it now, that the mixture of these three things was what did it for him. His face reflected need and lust in their purest forms. “R-rori.. If you k-keep doing that, I d-don’t…” He didn’t finish his sentence. Instead, he threw his head back and made a small noise as he emptied himself into my mouth. My question was very clearly answered as he let out so much that it started to seep out of my mouth. Honestly, that made me extremely happy. I let him have his climax and drain everything before I separated off, keeping my lips closed around him until the very end. I sat back and smirked at him before swallowing everything I could. I could feel some going down my chin, which just wouldn’t do. I didn’t want any going to waste, so I wiped it off and licked it off my fingers. I really hoped it had the intended effect. Apparently it did, because Ralsei was positively transfixed by it.

I let my eyes drift a bit to a slightly dazed expression. I honestly felt a bit drunk off him and I absolutely loved it. “How was that?” I had to make sure, after all… This was all for him.

“I… that was… th-the most… amazing… f-feeling….”

I nodded. “Good, but we aren’t done yet.” I reached over him and grabbed the bottle and put some on my hand. “You’re about to feel a bit of pressure… if you need me to stop, let me know.”

He nodded “I-I’m ready… I-I’ve never wanted anything m-more…”

I smirked and put the bottle down, then with my non-lubed up hand I stroked his chest. With the occupied hand, I gently rubbed the outside of his ass. He let out a small noise and squirmed under me. His facial expression told me that he was already starting to enjoy this. I didn’t want to tease him too much, so I slid my finger inside him. His eyes went wide, then softened as he let out a small purr. I could feel my own member twitch at that. Everything he did made me go wild, and my body was more than ready for him. I made sure to get him good and ready, stretching him out a little bit with my finger. While I wanted him, I needed him to be prepared, otherwise this would be a painful experience for him, and a minorly uncomfortable one for me.

When I was satisfied that he was sufficiently lubed up, I pulled my finger out. I pulled my boxers off, positioned myself over him, and pressed my tip against him, applying a small bit of pressure. I could feel the heat radiating off of him, and it made me want to feel every part of his body pressed against me. “You ready my love?”

He simply nodded and whimpered. He wrapped his arms around my neck and pulled me down into a kiss. Wanting to take it slow, I pressed into him. He moaned and his tongue penetrated my mouth, wrapping around mine as I bottomed out. I was taking it easy, at least in the start. When I was fully in him I pulled back from the kiss. “You doing okay?”

“Y-Yes… k-keep going… p-please… I n-need it… I need you”

I nodded and started to move. It didn’t take long until I had gotten into a rhythm with it. Ralsei squirmed under me, wrapping his legs around my waist and making small noises of pleasure as I went. I bit on to his collarbone and sucked, which only caused the noises to get louder. I really hoped no one could hear us. _ We should be fine, they’ll be in their room at this point.  _ I didn’t really have the time or the headspace to think about that anyway. I pressed my body against him and picked up the pace. It didn’t take long before both of us were at our breaking point. He surprised me when I felt warmth against my stomach, and I clearly surprised him when I made my final push, finishing deep inside of him. I had, admittedly, been saving myself up for this.. unintentionally, so it ended up filling him up. We both groaned as we finished, and when we had let everything out we were breathing heavily. I looked down at him and kissed him, long and slow, this time filled with less lust and a lot more love.

“I meant it… Ralsei… I love you.”

“I l-love you too… Rori… so much…” The poor guy looked like I had completely drained him of his energy, but my goal was accomplished. I had never seen him look so relaxed and happy. I wanted to see that face all the time, but I doubted we could spend all our days fucking like rabbits, much to my disappointment.

I wanted to stay like that for as long as possible, but it was seeming like that time was already coming to an abrupt end. The cum on my stomach was already starting to get cold, and that was just… not a fun feeling, though I had to admit that a part of me liked being covered in Ralsei’s satisfaction. I suppose that’s the appeal of those ‘ultra cumshot’ pornos you find all over the place. As much as I didn’t want to, I pulled myself out of Ralsei with a small pop. He looked a bit worried as I did, and gave a distressed whine. I was worried for a moment, then realized what the problem was.

“Don’t worry babe, I’m not going anywhere. And besides, this won’t be the last time we do this, if you want to.”

“Gosh I d-don’t even think that’s a question… of course I want to do it more!” His enthusiasm made me happy for sure, and hopeful. It was the best sex I had ever had. Even if Ralsei was inexperienced, it was still positively amazing. I sighed, not wanting to let Ralsei go, but I had to detach myself and hop up for a second. I walked over to the dresser and grabbed two folded hand towels. I made sure that when I lived here there was always at least one in the room, even during my dry spells. You never know when you need a towel. I brought my hand down and scraped a fair amount of the fluids off of me, then licked them up. I could tell that if I wasn’t careful, I could easily get addicted to that taste and not even feel bad. The majority of it up, I wiped myself off with one of the towels before walking over to Ralsei and starting to clean him up. I started with the goat boy -no,after that he had lost that title- the goat man’s stomach, then moved to clean my cum from his ass. It didn’t take long, honestly. When I was done I casually tossed the towels to the side, I’d take care of them later, and crawled into the bed. It wasn’t long before I had my arms wrapped around Ralsei, our legs intertwined together. He nuzzled his face into the crook of my neck and I had to admit, I had never been more comfortable.

It took me a little while, I was still bathing in the glow of the night, but eventually I fell into a slumber, though come morning I’d end up wishing I hadn’t…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope it was good, I don't write smut that often so I can only hope and dream that y'all enjoyed it.


	17. A Strange Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rori's dreams take a strange turn...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've been waiting to write this chapter for a good little while. 
> 
> Normally I'd wouldn't post a chapter until I had the next one written up but with it being the day before thanksgiving I wanted to get this one up first...

The confusion of the situation… It fills you with d̜͔̱̫e͏̷̨͕̭̱̹t̩̘̥̞̣̙̹e͍r̨͏҉͕̘̺͇͇̤͈m̴̟̮̗͚̣̠ͅi̧̢͍̞͙͓̰͉͖̦n̤̰͙a̗̞̕͘t̡̗̳i̷̭̯̮͔͝o͝҉̪n̢̲̥͟

It was cold… freezing, actually. That shouldn’t have been the case, however. Even in the winter, Arizona didn’t get that cold… and to top it off I was under the covers with Ralsei, and he and I generated heat like you wouldn’t believe. Maybe he had gotten up? I opened my eyes to very quickly find out that I was firmly not in a bed next to my boyfriend. I didn’t… actually know where I was. Looking around there was fog everywhere, maybe that explained the cold? 

I tried to get my bearings, but it was difficult: if I stared at anything for too long it started to blur and distort, sort of like an out of tune television, all static and suspicious noises. I was already freaking out a bit; I didn’t want a Poltergeist situation on my hands. I decided that the best course of action was to look for a door, so I took a step forward and put a hand out to stop me from hitting anything in front of me. It was when I looked at my hand that I had a true anxiety attack. There was an admittedly beautiful arm guard on my wrist. It looked to be made out of pure leather, and seemed to come up to wrap around my pointer and middle finger. My other arm had the same thing. They were reminiscent of an archer’s guards to protect from the lash of the string. I had always wanted one of those…

I followed my arm up and found that the guard came to just under my elbow. My right bicep had a thin strip of leather, about two inches wide and coloured a deep, dark blue. My shoulders were covered by shoulder plates, feathery strips coming out and resting against my skin. I looked down and found that my outfit was pretty similar. Though modernized to an extent, I was wearing a sleeveless shirt of padded leather, a belt going across my waist with a strap going from my right shoulder across my body. The leather itself was a dark brown, pretty standard stuff if I had to be honest, though there was a strange design on it. Emblazoned on my chest was a circle, with wings around it and three triangles below. It was familiar somehow, but I couldn’t seem to place it. I shrugged and continued my self examination. My legs were covered in similarly standard leather pants, but the cool part was the boots that came up to mid-calf. I didn’t know who had given me this outfit, or how I had gotten into it, but I had to admit that they had damn good taste.

The sound of static and distorted voices grew louder, and out of instinct I slipped into a fighting stance. I was in a strange place with strange shit happening. I was annoyed though… I was good with my fists, don’t get me wrong, but I’d rather have a weapon. As soon as the thought became a hope for protection a light shone in front of me. After a moment, that light turned into a flash. I shielded my eyes and when I opened them again there was a bow in front of me. It was a pure white, and was very clearly not made out of wood. Upon closer inspection it seemed to be made of bone. It was a short bow, with leather at the handle. The tips were sharp and I almost felt like I would cut myself just from looking at it. Walking around it, I found it to have black etchings in it, like cracks throughout. Despite this it didn’t seem to be broken at all. When I got back to my starting point I looked around, wondering what the hell was going on. I reached out a hand and grabbed the bow, then let out a gasp of surprise.

The second my skin touched the bow I was filled with energy and could feel the power of the bow resonating through my body. I felt a sudden weight on my back and, refusing to let go of the bow, reached a hand back. I recognized the distinct feeling of feathers against skin and pulled. When my hand came back to me I found an arrow in it. It had a carbon fiber shaft, with white and black feathers in alternating patterns. The head, however, was what intrigued me the most. It was white with similar cracks in it, though there were two little black marks on them, one containing an orange dot, the other a blue one, toward the wide part of the arrow. One of the cracks went towards the feathers from the black mark, the other had one that led down towards the tip, narrowing until it got to the tip. The tip of the arrowhead itself was fascinating. It wasn’t just a straight point; instead it separated out where the black mark was, ending with two points that seemed to yearn to be one again. It was truly a beautiful weapon.

I knocked the arrow and held it at the ready, prepared to fire at anything and anyone who was tempted to attack me. 

Out of nowhere, anticipation and nervousness building within me, I got a major headache, the static only getting worse. I closed my eyes for just a moment, trying to calm it, but it didn’t work. In an instant my brain was filled with seemingly random and blurry images. I didn’t understand, why was this happening, why did it hurt so damn bad, and why were the images changing so rapidly? After about a minute of what felt like an eternity of pain, the images started to focus in my mind, and I could see them significantly better. As they cleared up, I heard a voice. It was low, deep and… well, the best way I can describe it was windy, like if I were to blow a bit too hard they’d fly away.

When the words became clear, and the images were finally a crisp vision, it seemed like I was coming in in the middle of a sentence. “.......there? Can you hear me better?”

I raised my bow, scanning the area. “Who’s there? Show yourself!” I was a bit shocked to find out that even my voice seemed distant.

“I cannot. Manifesting myself into a physical form is… difficult in this current state.”

I growled. I didn’t like that. “Then give me a name!”

I got the growing sense of contemplation, then dismissal. Was I able to feel this presence’s emotions? That was weird. “I do not think it to be wise for me to reveal my name to you at this current juncture. Would you be satisfied if I gave you an alternate by which you could address me?”

I didn’t like that. Usually voices in your head weren’t a good thing, add onto it the strange place and the reluctance to give me a name and… well… it’s safe to say that I wasn’t pleased. That being said, I didn’t see much of a choice but to agree. “Fine… what’s your alternate name then?”

I could feel him thinking on it for a moment before he spoke up again. “Let’s go with… Maximilian. That’s a nice name, if you ask me. Yes… Maximilian Illea. Is that agreeable?”

I sighed. “Yeah sure. Why the hell am I here?”

“Well… I brought you here, don’t you see?”

“I don’t. Come to think of it I don’t see much of anything other than fog and strange images. Are you doing that, by the way? Cus if so, I’d like it if you stopped. It’s a bit disorienting… and painful...”

“Alas, I am not capable of stopping. It’s… unavoidable. I do apologize. I’ll do my best to alleviate the pressure, however.” It only took a few breaths before the pressure and pain in my head subsided. I was actually pretty thankful for that, if that had carried on any longer it might have ended up being debilitating…

“Thank you… now… why did you summon me here? Or whatever it was you did…”

“I figured it was growing time for us to meet, though I had hoped it wouldn’t be like this. I would have much rather preferred to be able to manifest in your world, instead of forcing you into mine.”

That was a shock. “Wait, I’m not in my world anymore?” It seemed to be a pretty decent question, and appropriate.

“Well… I don’t know if I can fully tell you yes, but I suppose I cannot tell you no either.”

“That’s… cryptic. What do you mean?”

“Part of you is in your world, and part of you is here. The important part, that is.”

“Aaaand when can I go back? Why did you want to meet me? Why the hell can’t you ‘manifest’ as you’re so fond of stating over and over...”

“All questions shall be answered in time. The time for one of them is now. You will return shortly, I can promise you that, and do not fret, you will remember this encounter. I do not wish to… how would you say it? Ah yes… play into the stereotypes… and make you forget this encounter for the sake of furthering some secret plot.”

“I appreciate that…” I sighed, then thought, then got a bit angry. “Hey! How do you know so much about me?”

“Oh, yes it might have done well to explain that before hand, wouldn’t it? I have been watching you for a long while, Rori. You have been set on a very important, but very dangerous path. I wish not to lie to you and tell you that you will remain safe on this path, but it is one that you must walk, for the sake of those you love, as well as the reality you call your own.”

“Wait what? Hold on, is this one of those fucking fate of the world tropes? Is this a dream prophecy?”

More thinking. “Yes and no. If by ‘fate of the world trope’ you mean that the fate of the world rests within your hands… I suppose that’s a complicated answer. Does it rest in your hands? In a sense. Are you the only one that can do it? No. There are others that may accomplish the goal, should you fail…”

“Then get one of them to do it. I’m just a dude.”

“I said others could do it, not that they could do it as well as you do, and besides… would you truly be willing to leave the fate of your loved ones in the hands of someone else?” As he said this, images of my friends and family lingered in my brain. Sans, Papyrus, Frisk, Toriel… My dad and mom and… Ralsei… He lingered on Ralsei and I sighed.

“That’s a low blow and if you truly do know me then you would know that that’s not fair.”

“I do know you, and furthermore I know what it would take to kick you to action.”

I growled. “Fine. I’ll play your game. So what am I doing? Finding a golden fleece? Collecting seven stars? Storming the castle and saving the princess?”

I felt a smile penetrate my mind, and amusement. “In time, Rori. All will be made clear. For now, however… wake.”

I felt a punch in my gut and got launched back, slamming into something hard.

I woke up in a cold sweat, and sat bolt upright, catching my breath. I looked around in slight worry, but Ralsei was still asleep next to me, a happy smile on his face. At some point he had turned to be faced away from me, but I didn’t mind. It was actually pretty common for the little spoon to be facing away. Relaxed by Ralsei’s presence, I let out a slow sigh and looked down at my hands. No arm guards, no armour, no bow and arrow to speak of. I had to wonder if that was just a weird dream, or if it actually meant something… I never could tell with my dreams.

Out of nowhere I got a random sense of curiosity and longing. My brain went back to yesterday, and seeing my SOUL so plainly in front of me. I wanted to see it again. Flowey and Ralsei had said that your SOUL could only come out conditionally, but I wondered if they were entirely right about that. Ralsei and Sans had been telling me that humans had their own sort of power for a while now, and I was starting to wonder where my limits were.

I put my hands in front of me, then closed my eyes and concentrated. I pulled up a picture of myself, though the one that popped into mind was more akin to how I looked in the dream than how I looked now, and focused on my chest, which soon started to glow pink. Having my goal in mind, I put my hand on my chest, not digging in or anything, just gently. I felt a pressure against my hand, and I concentrated even harder, then pulled my hand away to join back with my other. Through my eyelids I could see the light I had earlier in the day, though it seemed a bit different. I furrowed my brow. What the fuck? Why was it different? My anxiety was kicking up a bit so I opened one eye, looking at the SOUL, then the other opened and both widened. 

My SOUL was different. Instead of just the pink, there were two lights floating on its surface, one orange.. and one blue.

“Fuck…”


	18. The Awakened

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A long time ago...

The fear of an unfamiliar situation, it fills you with determination

 

I lived under a pretty damn good philosophy that if you have a dream you don’t understand, that scares you even a little bit, you keep that shit firmly to yourself until you can figure out what it means, or at the very least who to talk to to help you figure out. I managed to do this until Tuesday. Who was I going to talk to about this? I couldn’t mention it to my dad or step mom, they wouldn’t understand. Flowey seemed to be consumed by his own shit. He still interacted with everyone else but when no one was talking to him he seemed a bit… lost… in his own world. I didn’t question it. He would talk to me when he was ready. Ralsei was straight out of the picture. It would probably cause him to worry, if he did understand, and if he didn’t it would just confuse him.

Tuesday morning, I called the only person I could think of.

“Hey Sans, I need your help.”

“Alright give me a second I’m buying clothes.”

I blinked. That was an odd response, coming from Sans. “What? Well, talk while you shop… or hurry up and call me back…”

“I can’t find them.”

Realization dawned on me and I groaned, putting my head in my hands. “Don’t you fucking dare, that video isn’t nearly close enough to being new for you to properly use it to fuck with me. Also you never go shopping so… yeah.”

“Damn… you got me. Congratulations. What’s up bro?”

“I had a dream a few nights ago and I’m superbly confused by it.”

“Well what happened?”

“I… don’t know how to describe it… but…” I then proceeded to recount the details of the dream as best as I could. It’s not that I didn’t remember the dream, it was firmly implanted in my brain, it's just that I didn't know how to explain everything that happened in it. I even explained what had happened when I looked at my SOUL afterwards. When I was done he stayed silent.

“Uh… Sans?”

“That’s… troubling. I'm not sure what it all means. Here… give me just a second.”

I shrugged, giving a small “alright…” and then sat down on the couch. After about a minute I felt a crackle of energy in my chest and looked down at it. That was weird… after a moment I heard a thud against the back door, then a gentle tapping. I got up and walked over, opened the door, only to see my skeletal friend standing outside..

“Sans? What the hell? How did you do that?”

He wiggled his fingers in front of him and smirked. “Magic. Couldn’t pop up inside your house though… that was weird...”

I sighed but put away my phone. “Here let's go back outside, I don't want to talk about this where others can hear… yet…”

He nodded and we walked into the backyard, the dogs bursting out of the office to join us. When we got outside I walked into the yard and started pacing. It was the middle of the day, so it wasn't too cold, and I didn't want to be stationary so seats were not an option for me.

“So why is this troubling?”

“Well… dreams like that, that are so vivid and memorable, are usually signal that something big is going to happen, and the way you described the voice you heard… well..  we can figure that out later. For now I'm more interested in your SOUL.”

If anyone else had said that, I'd be freaking out. But Sans and I were friends. We had kicked each other's asses and that always made people closer. “O-okay? Why though?”

“Well for one you shouldn't be able to take it out of your body, and as a secondary concern it shouldn't have changed colours. SOULs tend to… you know… not do that. Can you show me how you did it?”

I nodded and put my hand up to my chest. I had been practicing a bit, when no one was around, and had gotten at least a little better at it. I focused on my chest and when I moved my hand away, my SOUL followed. It was still pink, and it still had those little circles of orange and blue moving about inside.

Sans looked at it and tilted his head. “Huh… never seen a human do that before. I mean there are stories but…”

I tilted my head. “What stories?”

He shrugged. “They're really old ones, like taking place back in the wars between the humans and monsters.”

“Well I've got time, and any lead is a good one…”

“I'll tell you them, but first I wanna try something.”

“What do you wanna tr-” I was cut off by a bone smacking me right in the center of the head. It impacted with a nice THUD and knocked my head back a bit. “Dammit Sans ow! Warn me when you do that next ti-” Another bone, this one at my shoulder. I was starting to get frustrated. He kept throwing bones at me, despite my objections to him doing so. It only took a few bones to random spots before I hit my limit. “That is ENOUGH!” There was a flash of pink and the next bone he threw at me was cut straight in half from an arrow, launched from the bow in my hands. He stopped throwing bones at me and went wide eyed.

  
“Holy… shit. Rori what the hell are you wearing?!”

I looked down and found myself to be in the same outfit I was wearing in the dream. “Huh… okay that’s weird.” I checked out the bow and sure as shit it was the exact same. Examination of the arrows showed the same result. I blinked and looked around, noticing my SOUL was significantly missing. “Wait… where’s my SOUL?!” Needless to say, not seeing that scared the shit out of me. I hadn’t put it away…

“Um… well… it’s… there...” he gestured to my body. He then walked up to me and walked around. “I can’t say I’m entirely pleased to have been right… or I think I’m right? I’m not sure.” When he got behind me he reached out and I felt a pull on my neck, then there was pressure on the top of my head, then a gasp. “Holy shit that’s cool.” He walked around to in front of me and tilted his head.

“What? What happened?” I put my hand on the top of my head and felt a bit of leather there. It must have been a hood, but I still didn’t understand the amazement. “Sans, hoods aren’t that cool, you are literally wearing one right now my dude.”

“No.. no bro you don’t understand. Uh… how do I do this…. Oh!” He patted his pockets then pulled out his phone. He stood next to me and pulled up the camera, putting it in selfie mode. I saw him… but didn’t see me, not clearly anyway. I could see a shimmer in the air, which told me that there was someone there… What happened next confirmed my suspicions a bit. He put his arm behind me and I could see it, though it was blurred.

“Holy shit… am I.. invisible?”

He thought on it. “Well… no… I can still see you… But it’s like I can see through you so… maybe it’s a form of camouflage?”

“That… would make sense.. Maybe true invisibility is an impossibility.” I took off my hood and looked at my hand. As the hood fell down, my hand was no longer see through. I had to assume that the hood is what did it. It was the only logical conclusion.

“So… how do I get it to stop and get my SOUL back?”

“Umm… that’s… the difficult part. Uh… I’m not sure”

I groaned. That would make this ability pretty difficult to manage.

“Well… how about this… try and focus on calming yourself down. If it was triggered by you being angry or in danger, if your body thinks it’s safe then maybe it’ll go back to normal?”

I sighed. “Okay that’s good and all but my heart is racing right now. This is a lot of new information and, well, it’s pretty damn cool. How on earth can I convince myself that I’m safe?”

He thought on it for a moment. “Well… you’re in the medical profession, you know what chemicals and what not bring that stuff about. Try and… you know… stop them from doing that…”

I sighed and pictured my body again. He was right, I knew exactly what he was talking about, and it bugged me that he was right, so this time instead of picturing my SOUL I imagined my endocrine system. From there I isolated my Adrenal gland and imagined shutting that shit down. No more adrenaline for me, no thank you sir. It wasn’t long before I could actually feel my heart rate slow, and the glow came back. I opened my eyes and saw my SOUL in front of me. With a smile I held up my hand, and it moved to float right above it. Still had the orange and blue though, and that was a small bit concerning. I hoped it wasn’t something bad…

He smirked “Well that’s good, and only adds evidence to the theory.”

“Okay, Sans, what the hell is this theory you keep talking about you damned psychopath…”

“Well in order to tell you that, I have to tell you about the stories of old. You got the time?”

“You already know I do.”

“Alright then. Here we go.”

 

__________________________________________________________________

Long ago, when monsters lived on the surface before, there was a small group of elite fighters, known as the Awakened. They came in all shapes and sizes, with all sorts of different specialties and abilities. These Awakened fought for the greater good of all mankind and monsters alike. They were warriors and fighters of incredible ability; they were able to harness the power of their own SOULs to create armour and weapons unlike any other. Some were fighters, with strength unparalleled, others were able to mend wounds and protect others through impenetrable shields, and others were skilled in the art of subtlety and ranged combat. All were, of course, able to fight with almost any weapon, though most had a favoured weapon, one that they had a certain proclivity toward. Regardless of what abilities they possessed, they followed a singular rule: to protect the innocent, no matter what.

These Awakened were called upon when the world needed them most, and acted as the universe’s champions to protect the world from sure destruction.

Sadly, despite their strength and dedication, most of the Awakened were wiped out. The humans feared their power, for the majority of them were, in fact, monsters. When the war between the two races began, there were but three remaining. The first was a monster, skilled and capable with long, spiked weapons, such as polearms and spears. He was able to summon tens of thousands of spiritual weapons, all thrown with deadly precision. The second was a human, who preferred subtlety and ambush to the more direct approach of her ally. Stories say she could disappear and reappear behind enemies in the blink of an eye. The final was a strange being, not quite monster, but significantly not a human either. She preferred the art of magics, and her ice magics were said to be powerful enough to freeze a volcano on a whim.

Together, these three made for the last of the Awakened. They made their final stand on the peak of Mount Ebott. They fought long and hard, working to make sure the monsters made it safely to the underground. Were it not for them, who knows how many lives would have been lost that day. It was also there that the Awakened died, for when the monsters were freed, and the Mage had placed the barrier, they sacrificed themselves, giving the power of their SOULs to protect the monsters from the humans that would do them harm. They died with peace in their hearts, knowing that they died for a worthy cause, protecting the innocent from a world that they had spent so long protecting. They knew, in that final moment, that when the world was reunited, and in need of powerful protectors again, they would awaken anew, and the world would burn, but they hoped that whoever carried on their lineage would prove to be worthy of the name, and save everyone from certain doom.

 

_________________________________________________________________

“Or so the story says.”

“Sans, you need to work on your story telling a bit. That being said, I think I get what you’re saying.… But if the Awakened have to be… woken up I guess…and that can only be done when the world is in turmoil… then if I am one then why would I have woken up now?”

Sans shrugged. “I dunno. But if the story is to be believed there will be three awakened, reborn at the turn of the world.”

“A-am I the first to be woken?”

Sans shrugged. “I think Undyne might be one of them, she has the same armour thing… and If she is, I’d imagine she’d be the one that is carrying on the warriors path. That being said, I can’t say I’m all that excited to find out that you might be one of the awakened…”

“Me neither, that means that trouble is brewing... “

Sans nodded. “And if it’s big enough to awaken a human… well… then it’s pretty damn bad.”

“So… what I’m gathering from this is that I need to train, to be prepared for anything… right?”

“Right… but I don’t know how you would train… I mean… It’s not like there are any experts on this… As far as I know it’s all stories. Undyne probably doesn’t even know.”

I sighed. “Hey, Sans?”

He raised a brow… well, not really but it’s the best way to describe what he did. “Yeah bro?”

“Would it be bad to say that I’m honestly kind of scared?”

“It’d be stupid if you weren’t, buddy.”

“Okay good…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter tells a story that I had in my mind for a while now, and I'm definitely happy to have it finally put out on paper... Or... On the site? Whatever. Regardless, I know that maybe some people would prefer everything to be pure fluff and to those people I apologize. There will still be fluff, but now that the characters are set up and what not I think it's high time for there to be a proper plot, and I've got a big one in my head that's screaming to be put in this story. I can only hope that y'all will like it too.


	19. The Big Moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rori's dad finds out that he's been training hard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this story is now almost 100 pages long by the end of this chapter... I don't know how it got this far... But we're at 19 chapters and almost 100 pages. This was supposed to be just a small blurb thing between a friend and I... Thank you all so much. This story has made me so happy, and I'm glad it can make other people happy too.

Training with Sans, it fills you with determination

 

We had decided to help our fears a bit and train me in the art of archery. I had a pretty good handle on it already; I had gone to archery club in high school and the bow felt as natural to me as breathing, but I needed to be better. We didn't know what we were preparing for but we knew it was big, and we knew we had to be at the top of our game.

To that extent we put the dogs inside, I didn't want them getting hurt, and went out to the center of the yard. Sans stood next to me and nodded.

“Ready when you are, Rori.”

I nodded and pulled my SOUL to be in front of me. “I'm gonna try something real quick… cus I don't want to be reliant on adrenaline to summon this…”

He nodded and I took a deep breath. If Undyne could do this, so could I. It wouldn't be that hard, right? I called upon a different aspect of myself, something I knew was tied directly to my SOUL from what Alphys and, surprisingly enough, Asgore had told me previously. I called upon my determination, my determination to protect those I loved, and to finish whatever had been started, my determination to live life successfully, and to find love in this crazy world of bad circumstances. Every bit of determination I had was directed towards summoning what was needed to carry on living. When I was sure that I had mustered up all of it, I held out my hand, palm up, towards my SOUL. It floated towards me, then landed on my palm.

Then… it melted into my palm, and I watched as a pink glow spread over my hand, and stretched to fill my whole body. Where it touched, my armour appeared until it got to my right hand, where it extended out into the bow. The deed done, I looked at Sans and smiled.

“I… I did it!” I was laughing, so very proud of myself for my accomplishment. People may have considered it a small accomplishment, but it was a huge one for me.

Sans smiled back at me. “Yeah you did! How'd you do that without me hitting you?”

“I was filled with determination my dude. Now let's get started.”

The next hour was spent training. Sans stood on the patio, his arm outstretched and his eye shining a bright blue. I didn't fully think through it at the time, but that blue was eerily familiar. I'd have to examine that train of thought closer at a later time.

I had asked Sans to throw everything he had at me, and to not hold back… though I think he still was, and I was grateful for that in the end. Dodging all of his attacks was intense as is. I ended up ducking, dodging and shooting every single second of that hour. It was… absolutely mind boggling that my brain was able to keep up with all the stimulus. He threw bones at me, which I was expected to hit with the arrows. At first he only threw one or two at me at a time but he quickly picked up the pace. My fingers were moving so fast that they were almost a blur.

He also threw those damned lasers at me, and those were rough. I had to dodge around them to avoid being cooked alive, and with limited room in the yard I definitely had to find creative ways to utilize my surroundings. I decided to make a game out of it, giving myself a certain amount of points for bones shot, a subtraction of points for bones that hit me (there were a lot of those), and extra points for style, either if I managed to dodge in a cool way or get a streak on bone hitting.

At some point, Sans fired a laser at me, and in order to get away from it I had to run up and kick off the back wall, the laser barely missing my back as I did. I landed on my hand and vaulted to hold my momentum. I did a backflip on my rise, and as I was in the air I saw the patio. My father was standing there, a cigarette in one hand, soda in the other and watching intently. He looked a little bit surprised. This, of course, threw me off so instead of landing in a badass superhero pose, like I had wanted to, I miscalculated my turn and my feet slid out from under me, causing me to land face first in the dirt. It hurt… a lot.

“Nice one, Grace.”

My dad and Sans were laughing, the bastards.

I didn’t look up quite yet. “Hey Dad, this is Sans… He’s a friend…”

I didn’t get a response, only the sound of the door opening and closing. I groaned and got to my feet, then walked up to Sans.

“You should have heard it, he came out a few minutes ago. I had to introduce myself so he didn’t think I was trying to kill his son, and once you started to run up the wall he was sitting there like ‘He’s not gonna make it. He won’t land this.’ No belief. It was hilarious.”

I punched Sans in the arm. “Shut up. Dick.” Then, I walked inside, bow in hand and red all over my face, and not just from the blood.

When I got inside my dad was standing with his arms crossed and an eyebrow raised. “Alright so where the fuck did you learn to do that kind of shit?”

I sighed. This was a conversation I had not been looking forward to. “I… may or may not have been training with Undyne for… a good while now…” I hadn't told him about it previously. I didn't want him to stress or worry about me, nor did I want him to make it a big deal.

“You've been training… with the person that used to be the head of the royal guard…”

I nodded. “Yeah… just a bit…”

“Rori this isn't a ‘just a bit’ thing here, you either have been or you haven't been.”

“I… have been”

He sighed then looked at me. “Are you at least good at it?”

“Well… I'm still alive so I mean…”

“Alright. Show me.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Show you? How do you want me to do that?”

“We used to shadow box all the time. It's Christmas, let's do it again, for old time’s sake.” Shadow boxing, as my dad called it, was a game that we used to play to… I don't know why. It was just fun. It was play fighting, as a base, but we had some unspoken rules. No actual hitting and no damage. I shrugged and searched for the link between my SOUL and I again. I willed my SOUL to return to its base form, deciding to test something and asking it to go away a specific way. After a moment the armour and weapon seemed to dissolve from my right side to my left, melting into what seemed like a liquid that trailed over my body until it got to my left hand, where it formed into my SOUL. It seemed… stronger, some how. It glowed brighter. That was not a part of the special instructions i asked… I shrugged and directed the SOUL to go back to my chest. It melted into my chest and I felt whole again.

My dad went wide eyed. “What the hell was that?”

I shrugged “I… don't know how to explain it to be perfectly honest. It's just… a thing I can do… now…”

“Huh… that's kind of cool.” he smiled

“Well thank you.” With that done I settled into a fighting stance, ready for anything. I had been practicing with two people who weren’t afraid to actually hurt me, I was sure I’d be able to stop anything that came my way.

He set himself into his own fighting stance and we moved a bit closer to the center of the room.  We locked eyes and there was a certain sense of determination in his that I had never seen before. It was like he was legitimately testing me. He had a smile on his face, but I got the feeling he had another reason for testing me. Knowing him it was probably just seeing if I could finally knock him on his ass. Regardless, I kinda didn’t want to find out.

It started out as it always did, soft slow punches. He was pulling them for my benefit and honestly it kinda pissed me off. He underestimated me… thought I was still a kid and that he had to handle me with kid gloves. Now I was kinda determined to prove him wrong.

He started throwing gentle punches, and I dodged them easily. It was a simple side step so I wasn’t too worried about it. This went on for about five minutes, my dad watching me to see if he could get around my defenses. I dodged pretty easily. See, I was used to having bones and spears thrown at me, so my father’s light punches were absolutely nothing. I didn’t do anything fancy, simply moved from left to right around it. He started to get frustrated by his inability to land anything and I smirked. His punches were getting faster, so my dodges did too. He let his anger get the best of him and swung low, generally something we didn’t do, and I did a backflip out of it. I was getting backed against the wall, something that I didn’t particularly like, so I ducked below his next hit and swung to be behind him. With a big smile I gently put my hand against his back.

My dad turned and looked at me, a big smile on his face, then picked me up in a hug. He couldn’t do that often anymore but when he did I could tell it made him happy. “Holy shit son you’ve gotten so much better at that!”

I blushed a bit, kinda glad that Ralsei was hanging out with my stepmom at the moment. I hugged him back and he set me down. “I’ve been training pretty hard… I’m hoping that it serves me well in the future.”

He tilted his head “Why would you need it to serve you well?”

I shrugged. “Never know when there might be an incident…” I didn’t want to tell him that whatever they were preparing me for, it would probably be bad… and possibly end in my own death. He would freak out for sure.

He eyed me suspiciously and raised an eyebrow. “Why don’t I believe you?”

“Probably because you’re smart, but just… trust me. We’ll be fine. I’ll be fine.”

He sighed and shook his head. “Just… stay out of trouble, okay son?”

I nodded at him and crossed my fingers behind my back. “I will.” I didn’t like lying to him, or making promises I can’t keep, but no matter how childish it was, the finger crossing made me feel a bit better about the lie.

“Alright. Hey guess what I found the other day.” He was not fond of hanging on awkward subjects.

I was confused, honestly. I thought I had taken everything with me. “What?”

He told me to stay where I was and practically ran off. When he came back he was holding a guitar case. Ralsei followed behind him, carrying an amp. The amp had a bunch of stickers from different bands on it. It was an older one, still good, but older. I immediately ran over and grabbed the guitar, then ran back to the couch. The case was decked out in stickers as well, but when I looked at it a bit closer I noticed something new.

“No… you didn’t”

“I did.”

There on the guitar case was Santana’s signature. I was absolutely shocked. “How on earth did you get this?”

He shrugged. “I knew he was playing at the casino, so when I went to work that day I grabbed the guitar case and asked him to sign it. I know how much you look up to him so… it was a no brainer.”

I looked at him and a tear started to form in my eye. “Thank you… Like truly thank you.”

“Merry Christmas, Rori. I hope you enjoy it.”

I nodded and then opened the case. My guitar was still in perfect condition. Unlike the case and the amp, the guitar was completely free of stickers or writing. I had done that very much so on purpose. It was an absolutely beautiful Jackson HT7 Misha Mansoon Juggarnaut, painted in an absolutely beautiful charcoal colour. I loved it, it was the first guitar I had actually bought for myself after I had started making a decent amount of money. Got it pretty cheap too, yay Bookmans.

Sure that it was all there and in good condition I nodded and closed it back up. When I stood up my dad looked a bit disappointed.

“What? What’s that look for?”

“Well… I was kinda hoping you’d play something.”

I blinked “Oh! Really? Why?”

“Cus you’re good at it. Why don’t you play your favourite song?”

I sighed. “Well.. I mean electric isn’t exactly the best for it, but I can try.” I plugged in the amp, then pulled out the guitar, plugging that into the amp. I took a few moments to tune it appropriately. I looked at Ralsei and smiled big. “Would you be willing to help me my love?”

“I… which song are you playing?”

“You’ll know as soon as I start, I promise you that.”

He nodded and sat down next to me, I looked at dad and Sans. “If we’re doing this, we’re doing this right. Go get Mom and Flowey.”

Dad nodded and went off again. A moment later he came out with Brenna, Flowey in her arms. The two had gotten pretty close in the time that we were here. It was a bit terrifying. She tended to keep him with her at her desk, getting a small bit upset when anyone took him away. I wondered how she would respond when we went back home. When they got out Brenna saw me with the guitar and smiled. “Oh you’re going to play! Awesome!”

I nodded and played my warm up song. It was a tune that I wasn’t fully sure where it came from, but I liked it. Sans raised an eyebrow up at it. “What’s up Sans?”

“That’s the song that’s constantly playing at Grillby’s… That’s your favourite song?”

I thought on it. “Huh… No it’s not my favourite but that explains where I heard it. It’s just a good warm up song for me.” With that I took a deep breath. It had been a good little while since I had played, but some things never leave you.

I strummed the first few notes, and Ralsei’s eyes widened, and a big grin went across his face. I knew he’d get it as soon as he heard it. After a few notes I started to sing.

“Wiiiiise men say, only fooooools ruuuush iinnn. But I can’t help… Falling in loooove wiiiiith yoooou.”

I noticed I was singing alone, and looked to Ralsei, who blushed and joined in. I loved hearing his voice, and it took all of my power not to shut up and just let him sing for me. We sang together, and I closed my eyes. If I didn’t, I’d end up crying. The song had a lot of emotional background for me, and while it was my favourite, I couldn’t help but tear up a bit whenever it came on, and having Ralsei sing it with me only made the emotions well up faster. I really did love him, so much… and I had no chance when it came to doing so. He had me smitten and fast. When we finished I had to take a deep breath to calm myself. I brought my sleeve up and wiped my eyes clean of any emotions. I opened my eyes and looked at the room, they were all watching us both, our SOULs had apparently decided that they wanted to be together again, because they were floating in front of us and gently spinning. Sans looked like he was about to start tearing up, which I found a small bit amusing. Flowey was watching a bit slack jawed. My parents had the same expression they always did when I sang that song, which was that of happiness. They were cheesy like that, but hey they had been together for a good little while and they were still in love, so that was something I was happy for.

I looked at Ralsei and he had a small smile on his face. It was at that moment that I made a decision. I looked at our hearts and nodded. “I… Need a moment, I’ll be right back.” I set the guitar to the side and ran to my room. I heard small noises of confusion from the front room, but I ignored them. I looked through my bag and found what I was looking for, then put it in my pocket and walked back out. I looked at the group of people, My family and friends… as well as my boyfriend, and took a deep breath.

“So… I’m… I’ve been thinking over a few things… and life is going to get hectic soon… extremely so. So… there’s really no time like the present to take fate by the balls and do what needs to be done, and honestly I think it’s pretty plain and clear that there’s no one better for me than you Ralsei.”

Ralsei looked up at me and blushed, but looked significantly confused.

My mom and Sans seemed to pick up what was happening and got a big smile on their face, leaning forward. My dad watched me, not wanting to miss anything I said.

“Now… A long time ago, when I was about 10, so 15 years ago as of tomorrow I guess? My dad did this and I thought it was one of the sweetest things ever so I kinda wanted to do something similar, I guess?” I rubbed the back of my head. I was nervous as all hell, but determined to do this. “Ralsei can you do me a favour and stand up?”

He did as he was asked, and my dad suddenly picked up and a few emotions crossed his face, worry, happiness, fear, apprehension, but I wasn’t worried about that. I looked at Ralsei. “I know that you’re not as accustomed to human traditions and what not, but uh… this is one we’ve talked about enough for you to get so Ralsei... “ I pulled out the box from my pocket and dropped to a knee. “Would you make me the happiest man on this earth, and do me the honour of marrying me?” I opened up the box to reveal the ring inside. I had saved up a fairly large amount of money, so I was able to spurge on it a bit.

Ralsei didn’t say anything for what felt like an eternity. He just stared at the ring, confusion and awe dancing across his face. I was starting to get disheartened when he took a deep breath, opened his mouth to speak, and instead started crying. He then tackled me to the ground and kissed me, a loving kiss that lingered for probably longer than my parents were comfortable with. He finally pulled back and smiled down at me. When he spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper. “Of course I’ll marry you Rori.”

Now it was my turn to cry… again.


	20. An Unexpected Visitor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brenna ends up getting a bit over-excited about wedding planning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty sure this chapter is exactly how my mom would respond if she found out I was getting married, just sayin'.

The prospect of seeing your sister again, it fills you with… determination?

 

Congratulations were spread all throughout the house. I hadn't been planning on doing that this early but I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Ralsei, and that made it worth it. When I had finally managed to get up, Sans surprised me by picking me up from behind in a big hug. If you've never been picked up by a 5 foot 5 skeleton let me tell ya, it's a shock for sure. I wasn't sure how he did it… he didn't have any muscles… but sure enough I was in the air.

“You're gonna get married bro!”

I was laughing and put my arms over his. “Thanks Sans. Can you put me down now?”

“Right.. sorry.” He put me down and took a step back. I turned and hugged him back properly.

I turned to my fiancé and put the ring on his finger. It fit like a glove, and that made me happy. I had decided to go for a silver band with a rose diamond, I figured it was appropriate. He stared at the ring and I smiled back. “So… we're going to get married.”

I nodded. “Yup! Are you as excited as I am?”

He nodded and kissed me again, lighter this time. “I've been waiting for this for a while, honestly.”

I flushed at that. “Yeah.. sorry. I had to find the right time.”

Mom smiled at me. “Alright I'm stealing your fiancé.” With that she grabbed Flowey and Ralsei's hand then ran off.

I gave a confused look to my father and he shrugged. “Probably wants to get started on planning.”

“We haven't even settled on a date…”

“You should know your mom well enough at this point to know that that doesn’t matter.”

I shrugged. “Yeah you’re right.” I sighed and reached into my pocket, pulling out another, slightly less extravagant ring and slipping it on to my own finger. I had come prepared for anything.

I had just gotten it onto my finger when the dogs started to bark and growl at the garage, causing me to jump. I’d really have to get over that if I were to be fighting some mysterious thing…

My sister, Nicole, walked through the front door, trying to get the dogs to calm down. I put my hands in my pockets and watched her, waiting.

My sister was interesting. She was tall for a female, standing at about 5 foot 8. She had short cut hair, dyed strawberry blonde. Her face was a small bit rounded and she almost always had a smile on her face these days. I remember when she was upset almost all the time, and I was incredibly glad that she had found happiness in the past few years. She was a Vet tech, I guessed that where I decided to go into taking care of humans she wanted to cover the animals of the world. For now she was working for the Reid Park Zoo, helping the animals there when they weren’t feeling well. She also volunteered for the Hope Animal Shelter. She did good work, and I was proud of her.

When she finally looked up her eyes locked on mine. I pulled out a hand and waved. “Hey sis. Long time no see”

It took her a minute to process everything. I had cut my hair and toned out my weight since she had last seen me. When it hit she ran at me “Rori!” I was tackled for the second time that day. Luckily I was ready for it so I was able to catch her before I fell, hugging her and spinning her around before setting her down. We backed up from each other and looked each other over fully. “You lost weight!”

“So have you. You dyed your hair again?”

“Yeah I was getting sick of brown. Did you get taller?”

“I don’t know, it’s possible though. It’s nice to see you smiling again”

“Life’s been treating me well, You look pretty happy too.”

“Got a lot of reasons to keep my hopes up ya know?”

Her eyes settled on my hand, then she gasped. “Rori Erikson are you engaged?!”

I blushed but nodded “Yup. As of about 15 minutes ago, actually…”

“Holy shit! To whom?”

There were a thousand ways that I could have introduced my best friend to my sister, but apparently Sans decided to take that matter into his own hands. He walked up to my side and grabbed my left hand with his right. He moved to be leaning against me. “Hi. I’m Sans.”

My sister looked between the two of us. I smiled, and said nothing. It was, of course, a complete lie, but it was funny as hell. I knew if I opened my mouth I’d ruin the joke by laughing my ass off. She raised an eyebrow and gave an uncertain glance. “Uh… wait really?”

Sans didn’t lose his smile. “What’s wrong?”

“Well… no offense Sans, I’m sure that you’re a great person, but Rori usually goes for people with… you know… skin… or fur, I guess.”

“He decided to bat outside his average on this one. Been going strong for a little while now.”

I could see it plainly on her face. She didn’t believe him. This was hilarious. “Okay, so if you two really are engaged… why don’t you kiss?”

I looked at Sans. Sans looked back at me. “Alright honey bunches,” I spoke in a low whisper. “You heard the girl.”

He nodded and got up on his toes. “Anything for you, my little warrior.”

Sans and I leaned towards each other, achingly slow. When we got close, we kissed our right hands, then high fived, both of us losing our composure and laughing our asses off.

“You’re a dick, Rori.” Nicole declared, laying the title upon me like a crown on a king’s head. It took awhile for us to calm down from that. When I was finally down to just giggles, I hugged her. She made a pouting noise. “Who are you actually marrying?”

I took a deep breath and sighed. “He’s in the computer room with Mom, if you wanna go meet him.” I let her go and she glared at me before trotting off. I smirked after her and held out a fist. Sans obliged me and kissed his knuckles to mine. I know I didn’t particularly like him at first, but I couldn’t have picked a better friend to have by my side.

 

________________________________________

 

It was a shock, to be pulled away from the party by your future mother-in-law. Ralsei was incredibly confused. He wanted to spend a bit more time with his fiance, but he wasn’t going to argue. When they got to the office, Brenna sat him down in the other chair and set Flowey down on the desk.

“Are we going to be talking about wedding stuff, cus honestly if that’s the case I really don’t need to be here…” The flower said. Ralsei didn’t fully understand Brenna’s newfound affection for the plant, he himself found the flower to be a bit brash and quite rude at times, but the effort to make friends with him was appreciated.

“Shut up you’re gonna be a part of this okay? You’re a big part of Rori’s life now and because of that you get to go. I’ll even make you a tiny tux to wear.”

The flower grumbled something about not wanting a tux and how bullshit it was that he had to be a part of it, but Ralsei could see the small hint of excitement in the plants expression.

“So.. wait what are we doing?” Ralsei asked, still confused.

“We have to start making preparations.”

“But we just… got engaged, wouldn’t it make sense to pick a date first?”

She rolled her eyes. “Look, you’re going to be my future son-in-law and from what I gathered that means I’m going to be the closest thing to a parental figure that you’ve got, save for maybe Toriel? I’m not sure… regardless that means it’s my job to make sure that you have the materials and the know how to make sure that you have a happy wedding. So… let’s talk.”

“Well… I suppose I could use the help. I’ve never even been to a wedding so I’m not fully sure what happens at one.”

“Well for starters we need to figure out if you’re wearing a tux or something else.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well… I know Rori’s going to wear a tuxedo.. So from that point what type of formal wear do you want to wear?”

Flowey got a semi-evil look smirk on his face, and Ralsei didn’t trust it at all. “Yoooooou should wear a dress!”

Ralsei blinked “What?”

“Think about it! You would look amazing in a dress, but I don’t think that a tuxedo would suit you too well.”

Ralsei looked to Brenna for help, she shrugged.

“I mean, don’t get me wrong… I think you’d look handsome in a suit and tie but… I kinda have to agree with Flowey that were you to dress up in… you know… a dress… then you’d look absolutely stunning.”

“B-but… isn’t that kinda… not a thing guys do?”

Brenna rolled her eyes. “Who cares? You gotta remember that first of all, your marriage is already unconventional. Not only are you both male, but you aren’t exactly human. Not that that’s a problem with me, but that sort of allows us to throw convention out the window here. On top of that… well it’s your wedding, so that’s your decision when it comes down to it.”

Ralsei thought on it for a moment. “Okay what if we do it this way… I'll go and get a tuxedo, I'll see how I look in it and so on, and I will also go out and get a dress to see how I look in those. I've never worn one before after all. We find out which looks better and we go from there.”

Brenna looked at him and tilted her head. “Better idea. How's about I go and gra-” she was interrupted by Nicole bursting into the door.

“Brenna! Roris getting married and won't tell me to who!” She saw Ralsei and Flowey and stopped her tirade. “Who is this and why does that flower have a face and move around?”

Flowey responded by simply scrunching up his face and sticking out his tongue.

Brenna sighed and rolled her eyes. “Nicole, this is Flowey and Ralsei. Ralsei is Rori’s fiance.”

Ralsei waved a bit nervously “Uh… hi. Nice to meet you”

She looked him up and down. “Oh yeah you know what that makes a hell of a lot more sense. You’re exactly Rori’s type.”

“People keep saying that…”

Brenna piped up “That's cus it's true. You’re small, for on.”

“Cute,” Ashe cut in

“Semi-feminine, in a good way of course.”

“You've got fur.”

“You sing.”

“You already seem pretty nice.”

“You blush a lot, which is something he really likes.”

“And you're willing to put up with his bullshit.”

Ralsei wasn't fully sure how to feel about what they had said. “No one has given me so many specific examples…”

“Well, you're talking to Rori's family here. We know him better than anyone else because we've seen all the shit that he's done.”

“And the porn he saves. And hoo boy he doesn't save porn often but when he does… jesus…”

Ralsei blushed. “Oh… well uh… that's good then…”

Nicole smirked. “And they all point towards someone very much so point towards someone exactly. Like. You.”

“O-oh… I wasn’t… expecting that..”

Brenna threw nicole a look that very clearly said “shut up”. The girl blanched but nodded.

“So what were you two talkin’ about?”

“Ralsei's outfit, for the wedding. We need to figure out what he's going to wear, and before we did we wanted to experiment a bit.”

“Oh! Do we get to play dress up with the goat boy?!”

Ralsei blushed. “When… did we decide to do that?”

“Right about now, if you're okay with it that is.” Brenna spoke up.

Ralsei looked between the two of them, then to flowey, who was making “go with them” gestures with his head. Then… against most of Ralsei's instincts… he agreed. Rori and Ralsei had a conversation about something like this a good while ago.

“There are going to be moments, Ralsy,” Rori had said while they were snuggling, “where you're going to be faced with a decision where your only two options are to deny it, or say fuck it.” He thought on it for a moment. “I tend to prefer taking the fuck it response.”

“Why's that?”

“Well… I’ve come to the conclusion that sometimes, the fuck it response is the most fun, and I strive for fun in my life. It can be boring at times ya know? Especially if you’re not willing to take chances and leap into the unknown from time to time.”

“I suppose that makes sense… Was I a leap into the unknown?”

“To an extent, I’d say yes, but you’re a leap that ended up being better than I could have ever imagined my love.”

That made Ralsei really happy, and knowing that he decided that maybe this decision was one like that, one that would end up being good and filling him with joy. Or it could be a huge mistake and he could be walking into a trap. No way to know until he did it. So he got up and nodded.

 

“Let’s go see how I look in different formal wear, shall we?”

And with that, they were off to the master bedroom, ignoring the strange looks they got from the rest of the family. Ralsei had to admit… He was excited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Meant to have this chapter up earlier, I actually started working on it pretty heavily yesterday and almost had it done, if I'm being perfectly honest, but alas life gets in the way. Gonna work on the next chapter tomorrow morning, if I can. it will be mostly from Ralsei's perspective, if I'm thinking on it correctly


	21. Dress to impress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We play dress up games with Ralsei

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So kinda short chapter on this one, I think I mentioned that it would be in the last chapter but it was one I wanted to put in. It'll come back later

The excitement of spending time with your future Mother-In-Law shines through you.

 

Ralsei had never had anyone play dress up with him before. He hadn’t truly had the opportunity to do so.

As it turns out, Brenna actually had a tux in her size.

“So… Rori had this video idea a while back, when he was still doing random shit with youtube, and one of those ideas involved us all being in tuxedos. It was this… mashup video between two songs. It was pretty good, actually. I enjoyed it.”

She had dragged Ralsei into the closet and looked him up and down. He was currently wearing his pajamas, which honestly consisted of one of Rori’s shirts, that hung down to mid-thigh on him, and a pair of pajama pants.

“Alright, go ahead and change out of the pants and put these on, they should fit you since they were a bit big on me.” She threw him a pair of black slacks. “I’ll help you with the rest when you’re done.”

She grabbed the rest of the suit before popping out of the closet… bathroom… thing. Ralsei was actually a bit confused by the design of this area. In the master bedroom was a bathroom, and through that bathroom was a walk in closet. It was… Definitely weird but Ralsei kinda liked it.

He looked at the pants with a small bit of uncertainty, then took off his pants and replaced them. They fit surprisingly well, they even hugged his backside and legs quite nicely. He looked down at his shirt, it definitely did not fit with the pants. He looked at the door, then at the shirt. He sighed and took off the shirt, then walked out.

Nicole gave a bit of a wolf whistle. “Man if Rori didn’t already have you…”

Ralsei blushed. Brenna threw her another look, and she shut up again.

“Come here” She looked him over, then put two of her fingers into the band of the pants and pulled a little. “Alright that… actually works pretty well. I think you’re wearing those pants better than I did.” She grabbed the shirt and helped him to put it on, then buttoned it up. Afterwards she tucked it into Ralsei’s pants, then finished helping him out. Jacket and tie applied she took a step back and looked him over. “Hmm… I would say we should get you some shoes but I don’t know if I have any that would fit you…”

“Oh! I uh… Don’t wear shoes anyway. They don’t really make shoes for goat people that fit properly.”

“It’s okay, Your paws are black anyway it looks formal enough.” She shrugged then snapped a picture on her phone. “Alright, for reference and what not.” She thought on it and looked to Nicole. “Should we bring Rori in here, while he’s still wearing the tux?”

Nicole shook her head. “Nah. I’m not sure that this is Ralsei’s best look. He looks good in the tux, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t seem to suit him so well, no pun intended.”

Flowey stuck his tongue out. “I kinda have to agree. Lookin’ good Ralsei, but not as good as you could be.”

Brenna raised an eyebrow at the flower “You just wanna see him in a dress.”

“So do you. Don’t you lie and say that you don’t either.”

Brenna shrugged “Alright you got a point. Back into the closet with you Ralsei”

Nicole snickered at that but didn’t say anything as Brenna led him back to whence they came.

She closed the door and looked at Ralsei, then started to take the clothes off of his torso. “Alright are you wearing underwear?”

Ralsei nodded. “Yes ma’am.”

“Good, take off the pants while I look for a dress.” She turned her back as Ralsei followed orders. It didn’t take long before she found something that worked. When she came back she floofed out the dress before putting it over his head. When they had it all adjusted she took a step back and smiled. “Alright, sundresses are definitely your thing. Give me a little spin.”

Ralsei spun, the dress flaring out as he did. It was a beautiful white sundress with blue flowers over it. When he stopped it continued going a little bit before finally settling down. Ralsei gave a big smile. “You alway see them doing that in movies… It’s just as fun as it looks huh?”

Brenna smiled kindly back. “It really is, and you look absolutely phenomenal. How does it feel?”

Ralsei looked down and flattened out the dress a bit. “Pretty good actually. I’m used to wearing things like those long robes so pants are… A bit uncomfortable for me.”

She nodded “Alright so it’s settled, we’ll put you in a dress. If… you pass the final test. Come on.” She grabbed Ralsei’s hand and started to drag him off again.

“Wait what’s the final test?”

“You’ll see.” She pulled him to the door, opened it and shoved Ralsei out of it.

____________________

I heard the door open, then an “oof”. I turned around to see my fiancé stumble out of my mom’s bedroom, quite ungracefully mind you. When he stood up though, straightened his outfit out and smiled at me, putting his arms behind him and swaying back and forth gently. “H-hey Rori. What… do you think?”

I don’t know if I had ever seen anyone that personifies the phrase drop dead gorgeous before, but I knew now why the phrase had come to life. I was fairly certain that I could die happy now. The sundress that they had put him in looked absolutely beautiful. It came down to just over his knees and was an absolutely wonderful colour that brought out the beautiful green of his eyes.

When I didn’t say anything, I couldn’t pick up my jaw, he blushed. It looked even more adorable when he was wearing a dress, and I didn’t think that was even possible. “R-Rori?”

I didn’t answer, instead walking up to him and picking him up in a big hug. I put an arm under him, the other going on his lower back. I spun him around and gave him a kiss. He squeaked in surprise, but quickly wrapped his arms and legs around me, kissing me back. “You look… Absolutely resplendent my love. I truly am the luckiest man alive.”

He giggled, a soft gentle laugh that made my whole being yearn for him, before putting his forehead against mine. “I love you Rori.”

“I love you too, Ralsy”

My stepmom came out, and I blushed. “I take it you like it then?”

“I love it. It has my seal of approval all over it.”

“Good. I'm gonna let him keep that one and then before you three go home I'm going to take him shopping for more.” She looked at Ralsei then at me. I had decided that I didn't want to put him down yet. “Ya know, your boyfriend makes for a pretty convincing girlfriend too, I'd recommend letting him wear dresses more often, he looks good in them.”

I looked at Ralsei, and saw so much in his eyes, love affection happiness and… okay yeah there was a bit of lust. It's hard not to be attracted to someone that can keep you suspended in the air for as long as I had been able to. I imagined that my expression mirrored his, I know I felt it for sure. “He can wear whatever he wants, but I agree. He looks absolutely wonderful in a dress.”

I thought for a second, then spoke without looking away. “Sans, I'll catch ya later. Mom, dad, I got some business to attend to.” And with that, I carried Ralsei off to the bedroom. I couldn't resist a sundress, and Brenna knew that perfectly well. My guess was that she had a go big or go home attitude with this dress, and it had worked maybe a bit too well. Regardless, that ass was mine. Luckily, Ralsei was in full agreement as to how we should enjoy the rest of the afternoon.


	22. I Dream of Maxie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rori has another strange dream. I'm not sure he appreciates the ambiguous nature of his REM guest.

The frustration of ambiguous information, it fills you with determination.

 

I felt cold, and when I opened my eyes it was more out of annoyance than wanting to. My suspicious were immediately confirmed when I found myself surrounded by mist again. I growled a bit.

“Ya know, Max, you could at least give me some warning before you bring me here!”

It was silent for a moment, then that familiar buzz and picture combination assaulted my mind once more. When he spoke this time, it was clearer, still a bit hazy, but clearer. “And how, pray tell, would I do that Rori?”

“I don’t know. I nice little email or memo would work. ‘Hello Mr. Erikson, this is to inform you that tonight you will have a dream that will probably piss you off by the end of it. With love, Maximilian.’ It’d help, for sure.”

There was a small chuckle. “Your sense of humour never ceases to lighten the mood.”

I rolled my eyes. “So what is it this time Max? Gonna tell me that our time frame has moved up a bit? Cus if we’re doing that, why don’t we start with what the hell you did to me.”

“Oh don’t worry, our time frame is still the same, there is no need to expedite the matter.”

“Oh okay good no that’s awesome glad to know I have the time, so what the hell did you do to me?”

“Well… Hmm…” I could tell he was thinking about his response. “Well I personally didn’t do much, simply induce something that would have normally happened much later.”

“And what was that?”

“Your awakening, my young warrior. Your friend was a small bit more correct than he could ever suspect.”

“So I really am one of those Awakened that he was talking about?”

“Yes, though under normal circumstances you would have awakened much later, and that would have been too late.”

“Too late as in we would all be dead, or what?”

“Well… Too late in that you would not have had the time to process your abilities, nor learn how to use them properly.”

“So what you’re saying is that the movies and books are wrong, and one week of training before the big battle isn’t nearly enough?”

“Try the day of. In your other timelines… Well… You Awakened due to the death of the Mage, and then were promptly killed. I need all three of you to be alive and well, if we are to come out on top.”

“All three of us? Who are the other two? I mean… Okay so if Sans is cor-” There was a loud crackle and my headache promptly came back. When Max spoke again he sounded distressed. Almost… Angry?

“Do not… Say that name. Please…”

I winced and shrugged. “Alright. If, uh… the aforementioned comic is correct… then we think that Undyne is one of them… Is that right?”

“I cannot confirm, nor deny that for you.”

“You’re insufferable. Then who's the Mage that you’re referring to?”

“I cannot answer that for you either.”

I threw up my hands and started to pace around. “Fucking fantastic! ‘Hey Rori, we’re going to give you these awesome magical powers and tell you that you’re going to fight some sort of amazing epic war but do you think we’re going to tell you anything about what’s going on? Fuck no. Why aren’t we going to? Because fuck you, that’s why’.”

“Well you seem to be getting things under control pretty well on your own.”

I growled at the nothingness. “No! I’m not! I still jump when I hear loud sudden noises behind me. I fell flat on my face earlier while training. Oh and on top of that, the only two people I can hang out with have no clue on how to properly train me as an Awakened! You have given me unlimited power and then sent me on my way like a small child. That’s how super villains are formed, ya know.”

I heard a sigh. “You’ve got a strong heart, and a good one. There are only a few timelines where you don’t follow the path of good, and those are the timelines where you never meet the Mage.”

“Then I need to go meet the Mage so that they can help me and keep me on the good path! But that’s kinda hard to do when you won’t tell me who or what the Mage is!”

“Again, Rori, I cannot tell you who the Mage is, but rest assured you are on the right path, if my research is to be believed. The world will be saved this time around.”

“And how can you be so sure, hmm? You said that I failed in the other timelines, what makes this one, and by extension me myself, so special.”

“Well, you’ve done everything you need to do up to this point to ensure success, and I’ve done what I can to make that happen as well.”

“Then if everything is going well, why don’t you show yourself huh? Show me who you are so I can start to trust you, because buddy, right now you aren’t really giving me any reason to.” There was something pulling at the back of my mind, like some crucial detail that I knew I should be getting, but I just… couldn’t figure it out. I decided to put that on the back burner for now.

“You will know of me in time, I have told you before, I cannot manifest as I am now. You simply must take my word for it and trust that I am doing my best to make this the best possible ending.”

“Yeah, well, I tend not to trust people who won’t show themselves, nor give me their real name, or even tell me everything that I need to know. So… Thanks mate but uh… yeah I’m keeping you on the Potentially Dangerous list.”

“There are better people for that list, I hope you know.”

“Oh I know you think so, but I happen to disagree, and until you show me that I can have any reason at all to trust you.. Well you’re just going to have to be satisfied with your name being planted on that list like Flowey in his pot.”

“Ahh that reminds me… The flower…”

“Watch it, that flower is my friend. Pick your next words carefully.”

“I am simply going to advise caution. He is… an unknown factor. His contribution to this cannot be pre-determined, and thus cannot be trusted. I will say, however, that your friendship to him is… Unusual.”

“You saying him and I aren’t friends in the other timelines? Cus I find that hard to believe.”

“No, as a matter of fact typically he plays for the opposing team when it comes to this war. I am quite curious to see how his interactions with you, on a personal basis, will affect the outcome of this timeline.”

“Yeah, well, just you watch. Flowey’s going to be good, and he’ll be on my side. Now, do that bullshit thing where you send me back and I wake up freaking out please. I’d like to go home.”

“I will, I assure you, but first… I need you to be wary. Pieces are being put together, the chess board is moving and it’s only a matter of time before it begins to affect you personally. Keep your eyes and your ears open.”

With that, I felt the same punch, and got launched backwards. I woke with a headache. It was still midday, I had fallen asleep shortly after the fun with Ralsei. I looked over and noticed he wasn’t there, probably spending time with the family. I was tempted to join him, but I had something I had to do first.

Time for some research of my own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any theories on what's going on yet? I'm kinda curious to hear your guys' thoughts.


	23. Sweet Dreams are Made of These

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rori and Alphys come up with a plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I have to go to work today to do an escort that I'm not excited about, but I wanted to post this before I do that.

The monotony of researching dreams… It fills you with determination.

 

Neuroscience was never my specialty. Don't get me wrong, I liked psychology and what not, but that didn't mean I wanted to do it on a regular basis. I was more into the physical aspect of medicine and biology. What could I say, I liked getting my hands dirty. That's why I chose the profession I did. I could have gone into psychology and have been an excellent therapist, but that didn't mean I wanted to be.

So naturally, digging through articles upon articles and research documents on dreams was absolutely abhorrent… but here I was, taking notes and coming up with ideas. I had a few pages of facts and notes. I had to get as much information as i possibly could before I took the next step in this process.

So what had I found? Well for starters, the majority of our dreaming occurs during REM sleep. I sort of knew that already, but whatever it was good to confirm and make leaps of logic from facts, instead of speculation or rumour. Additionally I had discovered that one of the major chemicals involved in dreaming was called acetylcholine. It's believed that this chemical is linked to memory and learning. It would be important to mark that down for sure, if my plan was to work properly. Retaining information and all that.

Of course melatonin played a part in it, seeing as how melatonin promotes sleep, and higher doses can induce lucid dreams or nightmares. I'd have to keep some of that on hand if I could as well, and work with Alphys to figure out the right dosage to give clear lucid dreams, without the nightmare aspect of things. I wanted no mistakes during this process. The final hormone that seemed to be generally agreed upon to be important was oxytocin. It was a neurohormone that gets released during sex. Well didn't that just make a whole hell of a lot of sense. I had found in my reading that oxytocin helps with trust, love and relationships in general. It gets released during sex and that's what causes us to form bonds with the person we were sleeping with. It's also assumed that this influences dreams very heavily, since normal dreams usually involved people we had seen in our waking life, even if they were just strangers in the street.

Finally I had discovered that one of the most important parts of sleep is the thalamus sending signals to the cerebral cortex during REM sleep, which gives strong dreams. There were a few other things that I had worked on, but they wouldn't come into play too much. I had gathered the important parts and would muddle through the rest later. I sighed and set my research to the side. I got up and went to my bags. Digging through them for longer than I'd like, I finally found what I needed. I pulled it out and lifted it into the air triumphantly, legend of Zelda style. I sat down and pulled the blanket back over my legs.

A while back, Alphys had given me a communicator, claiming that my phone was inadequate for important circumstances and that we needed a more secure line. She had then gone on to explain to me how it worked and what I needed to do to operate it properly.

That had been a few years ago now, and most of the information had seeped out of my brain, but I gave it my best shot. I opened it up and looked it over. This should be doable, right? I grumbled under my breath “god damnit… no, let's not make an easy communicator, no it has to have a bunch of features on it because nothing is simple with Alphys. Hey so this button calls, this button does video, and this button serves you up your favourite type of fucking cheerios whenever you want. But wait there's more! It comes with a bowl and milk too, fat free because we care about your diet…”

I finally found the right button and hit it. After a moment a hologram popped up in front of me and I saw Alphys, turned away from me watching some anime. She had ramen in her hands and her lab coat on.

“Alphys, need your help.”

She must not have heard me. I groaned. “Alphys…. Alphys… ALPHYS GOD DAMNIT THIS IS IMPORTANT” I usually tried to be nicer to Alphys, but she got way too into her shows and it was hard to get her attention. I liked her, however, and sympathized with her. She had led a rough life. She was also positively adorable in that “I must protect her” sort of way, though if you had asked me years ago if I'd be close friends with a dinosaur lizard scientist… thing… I'd have probably said that that was too cool to ever be a reality.

She jumped and almost spilled her ramen on herself. I was glad she didn't, it looked hot as hell. She turned and saw me. “O-oh! Rori… I didn’t know you were going to uh… Call… This is the private communicator too, is everything okay? And why aren’t you wearing a shirt?”

I looked down and blushed, then quickly grabbed my shirt and slid it on. “Woops… Everything’s… I think fine, but I needed to talk to you about a few things. Sans knows some of it of course… but I don’t think he’s told you all of it.”

I then proceeded to tell her everything, leaving nothing out. Everything from the dreams to the training to what Sans had told me about his theory. She stayed quiet through most of it, occasionally piping in with a theory or two. When I was done she looked at me a bit concerned. “I don’t like the sound of this Max person…”

“I don’t either, which brings us to the reason I called.” I took a moment to collect my thoughts before carrying on. “Okay… So he keeps saying that he can’t manifest himself in my dreams right?”

“You are correct on that.”

“Well… It’s difficult to get someone to tell the truth if you can’t see them, you know? It’s easier to lie to someone if you’re not face to face. I want to find a way to manifest him in the dreams.”

“You… Want me to c-come up with something that will f-force a d-dream into a… f-form?” She sounded nervous about it, and I sighed.

“No, Alphys. I want  _ us _ to come up with something that will do it. I’m going to start working on some blueprints while I’m here, when I get back home we can compare notes and what not.”

“W-well… You do know that th-that kind of stuff doesn’t… usually work as I plan it… right?”

“Yes, but you’re not working alone this time Alphys, I’ll help you don’t worry. I know I’m not the best at that kind of stuff, but we can muddle through it together okay?”

She nodded “O-Okay… So what do you have so far?”

I shuffled through my notes. “Well… I think our primary concern should be finding a way to isolate the thalamus and the cerebral cortex in a sleeping test subject. We need to find a way to bump both of these up from their normal working capacity, if we can do that we’re already halfway there, since those will give us our clearest picture. We also need to find a way to bind those two parts to the SOUL. He mentioned that he had brought my SOUL to another reality so that he could convey his message, which means that this isn’t just a dream… It’s also an aspect of the SOUL itself.”

“That… Makes sense I suppose. We can probably come up with something to do that…”

“Good. Now next there are three chemicals you need to figure out how to get or make in bulk. We need to get Acetylcholine, Melatonin, and Oxytocin. Trust me, to do this safely we will want as much of those as we can possibly get.”

“That’ll be the easy part of all this…” She was scribbling fiercely on her notepad. I did enjoy when she got down and scientific. “Manufacturing chemicals and hormones is actually pretty easy.” She sighed “B-but… you’re… are you sure that this needs to be done?”

“Alphys… darlin… there is a strange being that is infiltrating my dreams and forcing his way in. I have no clue what he looks like or even what his real name is. I know it’s real and not just a strange dream because I can legitimately do the things that I did in that first dream. On top of that, he’s talking about some big war type deal… That’s not something you throw around randomly. So I’m going to say that yes, this needs to be done… And it needs to be done somewhat soon.”

She sighed. “Alright… I’ll… I’ll get to w-working on it. When you get back w-we can work on it more…”

“Good. And Alphys?”

She looked up from her notes and raised an eyebrow. “Y-yes?”

“You do amazing work. Thank you so much.”

She blushed a deep red, clearly not expecting the compliment. “O-Oh! No need to th-thank me.. I’m just… D-doing my duty.”

“Well, you doing your duty is invaluable. Keep it up.” I hung up and flopped back onto the bed, groaning and staring at the ceiling. “My life is going to be hell, isn’t it,” I said to the void.  

Naturally, the void didn’t answer back… and I was happy about it.


	24. A Christmas Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ralsei and Rori open presents and go shopping, yay!

Opening up presents on Christmas Day always fills you with determination

 

I woke up the next morning in a good, though slightly tainted, mood. I was excited for Christmas, always was, and had even woken up with my fiancé next to me. It was nice, but it seemed like everything right now would be tainted by the thought of this war, whatever it was. It didn’t help that I was pissy about the fact that I had to fight in this anyway, and didn’t seem to have a choice in the matter. Needless to say I was a small bit of a grump that morning. I was, however, determined to not let that hurt everyone else’s mood so I put on my big boy pants and sucked it up. 

I looked through my clothes and found a pair of plaid pajama pants, a shirt with a goat wearing a santa hat on it, and one of my Ugly Markiplier sweatshirts. Sliding it all on I grabbed my pink Santa hat, a gift from my mom years ago, and put it on before waking Ralsei with a kiss.

“Babe, love of my life, it's time to get up…” I must have exhausted him last night. We had opened one of our presents last night and then played games with the family, but Ralsei had… at some point… decided he wanted to do something a bit different afterwards. I won't go into details but my legs were shaking afterwards for sure.

“Mmmm no… want sleep…” he mumbled before burrowing a bit closer to my side of the bed.

“I know you do babe but they're waiting for us out there. Come on, get that fine ass up, we can sleep after presents are opened.” I gave him a gentle slap and squeeze on the aforementioned ass, and what a nice ass it was. So soft and pillowy. My man definitely had curves in all the right places.

He squeaked at the smack and purred at the squeeze. “No fair… you know my butt is sensitive…”

“Yes I do now get up. I'll make it up to you later. I'll meet you out there” I squeezed his ass again for good luck, gave him another kiss, and walked out of the room to find my parents chilling in the front room. They hardly ever did that randomly so I was a small bit confused by it, but decided not to say anything.

“Merry Christmas guys! How’d you sleep?” I walked towards the kitchen and started to make some coffee. I didn’t drink it often, but my mom had some awesome creamer that I absolutely loved, so I was going to make an exception.

“Oh, pretty well. It was a nice night.” He was watching some show, I wasn’t sure which. It was still weird that he was out here at all. “Did you have a fun night?” He finally turned to look at me, taking a sip of his soda and giving me a smirk.

I turned beet red at that. “Wh-what do you mean?” I decided to bury my face in coffee.

“Oh nothing. Just wondering what it takes to make a goat make those noises.” And now I was choking on my coffee. I put the cup down and tried to get my composure back. It didn’t work and I ended up curled up on the floor, coughing. It burned. I hated it.

“I… Think you killed him…” I heard my mom say.

“He’ll be fine, he’s choked on worse.”

“OH MY GOD IT’S CHRISTMAS!!” Have you ever tried to be angry through choking on hot coffee? It’s… not a pleasant experience. The problem was that I normally could keep up with my dad when he did shit like this, but with everything going on lately it was difficult at best to keep my wit sharp. I was too focused on making sure everything else was honed.

“Yes, which means it's the time for giving, and one of the things we are giving is a hard time.”

I groaned and just sorta… lay there for a bit. I was honestly a small bit worried about moving, I didn't wanna start choking again.

It wasn't long until I heard someone come out of one the rooms.

“Oh hey Ralsei! How ya doing?”

“No complaints here.” There was a pause. “Where’s Rori?”

“He’s behind the bar.”

I looked up to see Ralsei, looking down at me a bit worried. He was rocking the loose pajama pants big shirt look, and that made me feel instantly better. “Uh… Rori? Are you okay?”

“Yeah my dad is just a dick…”

“You… Wanna go sit on the couch?”

“Yes please…”

He took a step back and I put my hands by my head, then flipped up and landed on my feet. I looked at my dad. “How’s that for Grace huh?”

He shrugged. “Didn’t see it, doesn’t count”

I mumbled something under my breath before grabbing Ralsei’s hand and leading him to the couch. It was a nice sectional, so plenty of space for my parents and us to sit down and still have our space. I shoved myself into the corner seat and Ralsei snuggled up against my chest. I wrapped my arms around him, sighed and settled in to watch the show.

We stayed like that for a bit before my mom gasped a bit.

“What’s up?” I turned and looked at her.

“Here check this out.” She handed me her phone and I saw a news article on it. I raised an eyebrow and started reading through it.

“In a strange turn of events last night, three monsters were killed in cold blood in Flagstaff, Arizona. Authorities are investigating the matter but so far have come up with no leads. Initial examination of the bodies show that they were killed by stab wounds to the chest.”

Ralsei and I both tensed up a bit. “I… That’s no good…”

“Who could do something like that?” Ralsei looked up at me.

“I don’t know… But something tells me we need to find out, and find out fast…”

“How do you expect to do that?”

“I’m not sure yet… But we’re going to find out. I need to go pick a few things up, after we do the present opening thing that is. Speaking of, when are we doing that?”

“As soon as Nicole wakes up, actually.”

As if on queue, there she was. She walked out and waved at all of us.

I sighed. “Alright, she’s up. The timetable has moved up as well, let’s get this done.” I was a bit nervous now, and I was pretty sure it showed clear on my face. My dad saw it and sighed, but understood. He could tell something wasn’t quite right here.

We all got up and moved to the front room. I took over the job of passing gifts out to everyone. When everyone had their own gifts, not a lot this year but definitely enough, we all ripped in. I was certainly happy with mine. Few gift cards, a new jacket and a few other inconsequential things. Everyone else seemed to enjoy their gifts too, which made me happy. I had spent a lot of time picking out specialized gifts for the whole family. I only hoped that my friends had enjoyed theirs as well.

When everyone else was enjoying their presents, I snuck out of the front room to the bedroom. I sighed and started getting my normal clothes on: I had some shopping to do.

As I was getting my shoes on, Ralsei walked in and looked at me with a worried expression. “Where are you going love?”

“Alphys and I have work to do, I need to get started on it now or I worry it won't get finished in time.”

“Okay, but you're not going alone.”

I stopped mid knot and looked up at him. “No.”

“What?”

“You heard me. I said no. You heard that news article. Did you notice what was missing? A suspect and human deaths. Do you know what that tells me?”

He looked a bit annoyed “what?”

I sighed and finished tying my shoes. “It means that whoever did it is still out there, and is probably targeting monsters. Flagstaff isn't that far from here and with everything going on lately it's too much of a coincidence for my comfort…”

“With what going on? Rori, you've had this look on your face all week, like something big is going to end up happening, and that big thing won't be good. On top of that, don't think I didn't notice that Sans was here for seemingly no reason, or the fact that your SOUL has changed. What is going on?”

I sighed “I… I don't know yet, Okay? And because I don't know I want to keep you safe until I can figure that out.”

“Then tell me what you do know.”

I sighed “I know… That there's going to be a war, and I as well as two others are going to play major roles in it. I don't know how… and I don't know when… but I know it's going to happen and we can't stop it. What we can do… what I can do… is do my best to make sure that you all stay firmly out of it.”

He sighed and walked up to me, then gave me a kiss. “Oh my sweet… Sweet stupid fiancé. There are a few things that need to be said here and it's high time they get said. First off,” I looked him in the eyes and was instantly assaulted by determination and a fiery resilience. “I am now your fiancé, and while I may not understand what that means fully, I do know that it means we are a team. We need to work together. Part of that means not keeping secrets from each other, especially big ones like this, understood?”

I blinked but nodded. He had never been this assertive, and I kinda liked it. Sure, he had his mind set on certain things and wouldn't relent before, but this was different. This was a Ralsei that was ready to fight. It was incredibly attractive. “Understood.”

“Good. Second, I don't care how dangerous things are. You are not going to keep me locked up like some princess in a castle, waiting on you to come home and worrying about you. This isn't a game, and if you're going to be fighting in some war then you're going to need all the help you can get. That includes me.”

“But Rals, you're not a fighter…”

“Hush. I may not be a typical fighter, but I can hold my own perfectly well in a fight. I'm not defenseless, nor will I ever be defenseless. You will not be going this alone, and you will not make a martyr of yourself to protect this world. You will come out alive and well, and when you do, when we do… we are going to go get married and live a happy life.”

I nodded. “Okay…”

Ralsei nodded and started to change into his own clothes. When he was done he walked up to me and gave me another kiss. “Oh, and Rori?”

I looked up at him and raised an eyebrow “Yes, my love?”

“If you ever try to hide something this big from me again, or try to go it alone like this again? I’m going to rip your balls off and jam them down your throat.”

I gulped but nodded. “Okay… It won’t happen again I promise.”

“Good” he smiled bright at me. “Now, let’s go shopping.”

I had to admit, I was extremely turned by his threats. Maybe I needed to examine myself as a person to figure out why. Whatever, that would be a discussion for another time. We got our stuff together and headed out, giving a simple “be right back” to my father before hopping in the car and driving.

During the trip I explained to Ralsei everything that had happened, and everything I had done to adapt and train for it. When we hit the end he sighed.

“So you mean to tell me that you've been dealing with all this, pretty much by yourself, since we got here?”

“Uhhh kinda maybe sorta?”

“Rori why on earth would you do that to yourself?”

“Well… I'm used to doing things on my own… and this is a big thing, I didn't want to drag you into it cus I didn't want you to get hurt.”

“Just… remember what I said. We are partners now, through thick and thin. I'll always be at your side. You’re not alone anymore.”

I sighed and pulled into the Walmart parking lot. “I appreciate it, I do. Just understand if it takes me a bit to break those habits.” I sighed, staring at the store entrance. “Let’s step into hell. I hate Walmart…” With that I turned off the car and hopped out. I waited for Ralsei to get out and grabbed his hand, then led the way. I handed him a list. “Alright, this is what we need. Let’s get as much as we can then get the hell out. Walmart sucks on Christmas.”

And so it did. There were people everywhere and my claustrophobia was kicking in, which ended up making me angry. I counted no less than 5 people bumping into my cart from the time I grabbed it to the moment I had gotten to the cars and automobile section alone. Ralsei split off and went to the electronics.

I needed to work on the shit in my workshop. It was looking awfully bare. Some of it I could get from Dad, of course, but I needed more modern pieces to do what needed to be done. I had just started to look through welding tools when someone bumped into me and caused me to drop them. I cursed under my breath and went to pick them up, only to find out that the other person had already grabbed them.

I stood up straight and looked them in the eyes. Their hair was a light brown, in a messy style, about medium length. I couldn’t tell from looking at them whether they were male or female, so I decided not to assign them any sort of gender.They were wearing a light green and yellow striped shirt and jeans. It wasn’t until my eyes found theirs that I noticed something was off. They seemed normal, but there was something else in them. I didn’t like it at all.

I held out my hand. “Uh… Thanks for the assist. Sorry for bumpin’ into you there.”

They looked at me for a moment, then to the tool. They started to toss it back and forth between their hands and smirked. “Oh, it’s no problem… Rori Erikson.”

My eyes rounded and I took a step back. “How the hell?”

They met my eyes again, but this time their eyes were… red. That wasn’t good… not at all. “You can’t save them, you know?”

I growled and put myself in a defensive stance. My head started to pound, and every instinct told me to run. “Who the hell are you?”

“Well now I’m just offended. Seems the old sack of bones didn’t tell you about me. Isn’t that mean?”

“I’m only going to ask nicely one more time. Who the hell are you.” I was starting to shake, losing my temper a bit.

“Oh, I’m just an old friend, simply here to find out who my competition is.”

That set me off pretty fast. I reached forward and grabbed their neck, slamming them into a wall. I stared them in the eyes and finally saw some emotion. I heard a gasp from the end of the aisle, but I wasn’t too terribly concerned about it.

There was a crackle of energy in the air and I saw the faint glow of pink radiating off of me. My eyes bored into theirs and my voice came out as a growl. “I’m done being kind.” I started to squeeze, and felt them squirm under me, their hands reaching up and grabbing at my arm in a failed attempt to get me off of them. “Who the FUCK do you think you are?”

They didn’t move their eyes away from mine. It looked as if they were trying, but something was stopping them. “Ch-Chara. My name… is… Chara.” They could barely breathe, and I found myself unable to care.

“And why the fuck should I care about anything you say?”

“B-because… I’m the one that’s going to destroy everything you l-love.”

I smirked. “That’s what you think, jackass.” I was about to snap their neck when a familiar voice popped into my head.

“Rori, you can’t. Not yet.”

I was starting to see red. “And why the fuck not?!” I didn’t look away from Chara, but I did press further into their windpipe.

“The Mage is not awakened, it is not time.”

“Then wake them the fuck up, asshole. I can end this here and now!”

“This path leads you toward certain doom, Rori. If you kill them now, they will just come back in a new form.”

“I’ll take my chances!”

I was about to snap their little neck and stomp on the remains when control was taken away from me. Despite all my effort my arm moved away from them. “NO! Let me kill them Max!”

There was a bright flash of light, and I was suddenly out of the Walmart. Looking around, I found myself to be in a room. It looked like an old school cabin, something that would have made Abraham Lincoln proud.

I’ll admit, I lost my temper a bit. A lot of things got broken: I ended up throwing around tables and anything I could get my hands on. When I was done, I was breathing heavily in the middle of a hurricane sized temper tantrum. I heard footsteps and turned around, ready to kill whoever it was that dared to interrupt me.

From the shadows stepped… Well, the best way that I could describe it was more shadows. I knew it must be a person, they had the figure of one, but whoever the person was, they were shrouded in a mist that obstructed most of their figure.

“What the hell do you want?!”

“I want you to calm down for a moment, have a seat… Though… Maybe not in that chair. You seem to have destroyed it.”

“No, fuck you! I refuse to sit down and fuck you for suggesting that Max! I thought you couldn’t manifest huh? What the fuck do you call this?”

“I have not manifested, Rori. If you care to notice, I am simply a spectre, a shroud of mist as I always have been.”

“Then Fuck right the fuck off asshole, I don’t need someone who is unwilling to let me end this now to give me a damn morality check.”

“I simply wish you to listen to reason.”

“I’ll pass, thank you.” With that I stormed to the front door, wrenched it open and walked through, only to find myself back in the same room. This, of course, set off another anger spree, which ended in the door being firmly destroyed and ripped off of its hinges.

“Please stop destroying the house, I took a lot of effort to conjure this image for you.”

“Fuck your time!”

He sighed, getting a bit annoyed. “You will not be leaving this place until I decide to let you, I’d suggest you calm down so that you may get back to your home in a timely manner.”

“Eat my ass, you zebra fucking cum-bubble, I’m getting sick of you telling me what to do and not giving anything in return!” I needed to break something else, so I went to the kitchen and started to tear that up too. Temper tantrums abound.

Eventually, I did calm down, but not of my own volition. I think I had simply temper tantrumed myself into a dazed tired state.

I finally sighed and dropped the plate I was about to throw and let it shatter against the ground. I walked out of the kitchen and looked at the mist.

“Are you finally done, Rori?”

“Yeah. Yeah I’m done. So why can’t I kill them now?”

“Certain pieces must be in place first. You will get to kill her, rest assured, but the time for that is not now. You must prepare.”

“Prepare for what?”

“There are thousands of souls out there, consumed by Chara. She can simply bring herself back through those souls, thousands of times over.”

“So how the fuck do we stop her then?”

“Alas, I am not sure yet. But you are smart, and I am sure you will figure it out.”

I growled, my anger flaring again. I was about to lash out, but I stopped myself, taking a few deep breaths and running my hand through my hair. “Okay… We can work this out, but I need to do something first.”

“Understandable. You may leave now.”

I was suddenly back in Walmart, standing where I had been. There was no sign of Chara anywhere, but there was Ralsei, looking at me, worried. I looked back at him and he took a step back. That made me flinch. My body was still coursing with adrenaline, and it seemed to only be a minute or two after I had been taken away from here. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, working to calm my system. The pink glow disappeared from my body and I stopped shaking. I opened my eyes again and grabbed the welding tool, throwing it into the cart.

“Let’s finish up here and get the hell out. I fucking hate Walmart.”


	25. Cat-like Reflexes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rori builds a thing and makes a friend

Working with your hands and getting things done, it fills you with determination.

 

We managed to get everything we needed without incident, which was pretty shocking to me. I suppose fate decided that meeting Chara was good enough when it came to unfortunate circumstances.

When we stepped outside it was raining, and hard. “Must have started while we were shopping.” I sighed and started to walk out from under the awning when I heard a faint mewling to my left. I blinked and looked over, only to find a cat huddled in the corner. I looked to Ralsei and handed him my keys. “Here, go ahead and get the car started. I'll be there in a minute.”

Ralsei nodded and pushed the cart off towards the car. I walked over to the cat, a beautiful black cat with a white ‘sock’ on its back paw, on the left side, and knelt down, putting my hand out to it. The cat immediately ran up my arm and wrapped itself around my neck, resting on my shoulders. I blinked and looked over at it. No collar, so I had to assume it had no owner. I held up a hand to it, and it put its paw on top.

“Hey little buddy. You got a home?”

The cat looked at me, twitched its tail and then… Did it shake its head? I think it did. That was weird. I blinked. “Alright buddy let’s get you out of the rain.” I’d work through the semantics of that later, for now I had one goal in mind. Thankful that I had parked relatively close, I ran to the car, opened the back door, and let the cat jump in. She slunk over to be on the passenger side, curled up and promptly fell asleep. I closed the door and started to help Ralsei put all the stuff into the car. I closed up the trunk and Ralsei stopped me.

“You do realize that your dad has three dogs, right?”

“Y-Yeah? Your point?”

“You’re going to have a real hard time with sneaking a cat past them.”

“I’ll… Figure it out. But I couldn’t just leave her out here in the cold.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I agree with you. I have no problems with adopting a cat. I’m just... worried how your dad will respond.”

“I don’t know, this cat seems pretty smart… If I’m good about it he will never know.”

“Something tells me that’s not how this is going to end, but I’ll trust your instincts on it.”

I nodded. “Alright, let’s get home and out of the rain.”

We got into the car and made our way home. When we got there the rain had subsided a fair bit, moving to only a light drizzle. I looked at the cat. “Hey buddy, wake up darling.”

The cat opened its eyes and yawned, stretching. I walked around and opened the door. The cat ran off, toward the side of the house, jumping up onto the wall and laying there. I shrugged “Okay so… that solves that problem I suppose…”

Ralsei nodded. “Yeah… Okay, so are we adopting a cat or not?”

“I guess it really depends on the cat, to be perfectly honest with ya. I’m gonna get this stuff into the house.” I pulled out my phone and hit the button to open the garage, then started grabbing the heavier parts and lugging them to the door. Once we got everything in, I moved it all to the back yard. It wouldn't be a perfect work station, but it'd do for now for sure.

I closed the back door, making sure no dogs got out in the meantime, just in case the cat was still skulking about, and got to work. Sure enough, the cat came up and sat next to me, watching what I was doing. After a while I started explaining what I was doing to the cat. You know… like a crazy person.

“So… if we weld this part right here it'll start to create a pretty good casing for the actual mechanics of it.”

The cat mewled at me and I decided to use it as an inner voice.

“Well yes, I should be putting everything else together first, but i know the dimensions I’ll need, and getting this part done will ensure that I stay within those dimensions and still be able to fit everything in.”

This continued on for a while, me working away and the cat occasionally mewling at me as I did. It was nice to have a sounding board for my ideas, even if it was just a cat. When I finished I wiped my brow, getting grease everywhere, and stood up, looking at it. The cat jumped up and wrapped itself around my neck again.

It was… Rough. Not nearly as good as it could be. “You know,” I said as I started to scratch the cat’s head. “Once upon a time I wanted to be an engineer. Think I could have gotten in on this?”

The cat, who I had decided I was going to actually name Cat (I’m bad at names) mewled with uncertainty at me. I looked down at it and raised an eyebrow. “Keep doing stuff like that and I’m going to start thinking you’re more than a normal cat.”

I sighed and walked around the invention. “So… This isn’t the finished product, obviously, purely a prototype. Alphys will work on it the rest of the way and we’ll go from there. I bet she can make something that looks significantly better. That being said… I think this will work well to demonstrate a general picture of what I want to do, don’t you?”

The cat looked at me and mewled, before jumping onto the machine and looking around it, sniffing here and there. I chuckled lightly as it made a sort of disgusted face. “Well what did you expect Cat? It’s going to smell like metal and oil. I highly doubt that’s a particularly fun scent.” I snapped a picture and sent it to Alphys.

‘How does this look?’

‘It looks… Rough… Did you build this?’

‘Yeah, why?’

‘Why don’t we leave the building to me Rori… We’ll… We’ll get there.’

I rolled my eyes and pocketed the phone. “Alright Cat let’s go do something productive with our time.” She looked up at me and jumped back onto her spot. I felt like I was forgetting something as I walked into the house, then got quickly reminded when the dogs started growling at me. I blinked and looked between them and Cat, then cursed under my breath.

“No guys she’s fine she’s just a ca-” I was cut off by silence. I wasn’t sure what it had been, but the dogs suddenly shut up, looked at Cat, and then backed off. I looked at the cat and then shrugged. “Alright… Well… That works.”

That hurdle down I grabbed a soda and walked into my room. Flowey was sitting on the desk, and seemed to bristle when I walked in.

“What in the hell did you bring in here?!”

I blinked. “Flowey… It’s a cat. They’re nothing new. They have paws, cute little noses, you know, the usual?” I flopped over on the bed. “Chill your shit, dude.”

He made a noise that was reminiscent of a hiss as Cat sniffed at him. “That is no cat Rori! You need to get that beast out of here, throw it out. There’s something not right about it.”

I waved him off. “Chill dude, the cat isn’t going to take your place as my friend or weird non-human or monster companion. Your spot is firmly in place.”

“What? I’m not worried about that! I couldn’t care less if you r-replaced me.” His voice hitched a bit.

“You’re a liar Flowey, and you know it.”

“Whatever! Shut up… Not important. What’s important is that that cat isn’t normal.”

I sighed and sat up. “Okay then what do you think it is?” I reached over and started to pet the cat. “She looks like a normal ass cat my dude. She acts like a normal ass cat. There is nothing unusual about her.”

“I… I don’t know what it is, but it sure as hell isn’t a cat.”

“I think you’re paranoid.”

“Good! Paranoia is good right now! Bad stuff is about to happen Rori, I’d recommend you embrace it now to save your own skin later.”

I rolled my eyes and looked at the cat. “Cat, are you anything other than a cat? If you are now is the time to tell me.”

The cat looked at me, blinked, then started to lick her paw. I looked back to Flowey.

“It’s a cat. It does cat things. Now… Calm yourself and relax.” I moved my hand over to scratch flowey at the base of his petals and he sighed, then purred a bit. “Take a chill pill my dude, everything is alright. I’ve got things on lock down for the time being. Can we relax and get some sleep? I’m exhausted.”

He sighed, defeated. “Fine… I guess… But I reserve the right to kill the cat if I end up being right.”

I rolled my eyes and laid down. I closed my eyes and curled up a bit.

“Rori, the cat just winked at me.”

“Cats do that pretty regularly, Flowey. Relax.”

I fell asleep to the soft sound of purring and grumbling. It was honestly the best way to fall asleep, if you asked me.


	26. Home Sweet Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rori and Ralsei are finally home from Arizona. It feels good to be back.

The feeling of a job well done… It fills you with determination.

 

The rest of the Christmas break went pretty smoothly. I continued training, this time with the assistance of Ralsei. He was determined to prove that he could hold his own, so that I wouldn’t freak out on him. As it turned out, Ralsei had a pretty handy skill with fire magic. I wasn’t aware of this so when I was suddenly getting fireballs launched at me it caught me off guard.

It also turned out that Ralsei was better at my job than I was, and was able to use magic to heal people, a skill that came in handy considering that I ended up more battered and bruised from my sparring matches with him than under most other circumstances. I had to admit, I had underestimated my fiancé: he could kick my ass about half the time, which only meant I needed to bring up my game. By the end of the week I had managed to hit the point where I was only singed about a quarter of the time. That made me proud.

When it was time to head home, we packed up everything and got a little cat carrier for Cat. Dad wasn’t too pleased with me for having her in the house, but seeing her wrapped around my neck he ended up conceding, realizing that I wouldn’t be there for long anyway. When we got back home I walked into the house and let Cat explore, then I set Flowey down on the table and flopped on the couch. Ralsei sat down next to me and held out his arms. I immediately curled up into him.

We stayed like that for a good little while, tired from the trip and from the past week as well. It takes a lot out of you, finding out that the fate of the world very well may rest in your hands. After a while he started to run his hand through my hair.

“So… What are we going to do about this?”

I blinked and looked up at him, a small bit worried that I was in trouble. “What do you mean?”

“The potential bad stuff about to happen? What are we going to do about it?”

I sighed in relief. “Well… we fight. We train for it and we fight. There's really nothing else we can do at this point.”

“But from what you've told me we can’t… end it traditionally, right? We need to find some way to make it… I dunno… permanent? I mean, if Max said we couldn't kill the person there must be a reason.”

I sighed, then looked over at Flowey, who was slowly starting to settle into sleeping. “Hey, buddy. Got a question for you.”

He startled back to being fully awake and grumbled, then looked to me. “What?”

“What do you know about a person named Chara?”

He winced at the name, and I saw fear cross his face. “Wh-where’d you hear that name?”

“Well… when I was in Walmart, I got into a fight with them…”

He sighed. “Okay well… don't say their name again… please…”

An odd request, but I shrugged and agreed.

“Okay… you remember the person I told you about? Stole a bunch of SOULs, convinced Frisk to be evil all that?”

I nodded. “Yeah, sure. Kinda one of those stories you don't forget easily.”

“Well… that's who it was. They’re… They're evil Rori, pure unadulterated evil. They consume timelines like it's nothing and then go back for seconds.”

“How do you know all this? If you don't mind me asking… is it just the whole knowledge of timelines thing?”

He looked nervous. “Uh… sort of? They… used to be my best friend…”

That took me by surprise. “Really? Why? They don't seem like the type to befriend a flower…”

He looked away. “I wasn't always a flower ya know. I’m… I'm Toriel and Asgore’s son”

That made me sit up and look at him. “Wait, what?! They had a kid together?!”

“Uh… yeah. So. My name was Asriel at that time, before everything went bad…”

I blinked. “Wait… Asriel…” I looked at Ralsei. “Isn't that an anagram of your name Ralsy? That's a mighty odd coincidence…”

Ralsei shrugged, and Flowey looked annoyed. “Well took you guys long enough to figure that one out, the story is almost over at this point….”

That was a weird thing to say. I raised an eyebrow, but waved it off. Flowey… or Asriel… always made weird comments like that, as if we were in a story and only he knew it. “Whatever, go on.”

“When I was still alive, they fell down into the underworld. They were known as the first human, first of… 8 I believe, including Frisk. At some point, they died. I absorbed their soul and we went to the surface… both of us ended up dying. It wasn't until a long time later that Alphys decided she wanted to use the flower I brought back to test her determination machine on and… well… here we are I suppose.”

I thought on that for a moment, hand on my chin, the other tapping idly on my knee. “Where were they buried?”

Flowey raised an eyebrow. “Why does that matter?”

I sighed. “Look… we can't kill them now, right? Max said that they would just end up coming back. But what if we found a way to bind them back to their original body? We could force them in there and possibly save whatever poor soul they've taken over…”

“You really think that'll work?” Flowey asked, clearly not believing in the plan.

“Honestly? I don't know. Could work like a charm, or it could get me killed. Regardless of the outcome, it's worth a shot. And since I haven't been sucked into dreamland by Max, I have to imagine that he agrees that it could plausibly work…”

Ralsei spoke up. “So when do we leave?”

I looked at him. “Okay, I know I promised I wouldn't exclude you from things like this, but I do legitimately need you to stay here and protect the home front. If I'm going to be gone for a while I need someone just as capable, if not moreso, to watch over things while I'm away.”

He looked like he was going to argue but closed his mouth, then sigh. “Fine… but you need to take someone with you. You're not going alone.”

I nodded. “Don't worry, I will. I promise, I don't know who yet, but we will figure that out when the time calls for it.”

He nodded. “So… To go back to the first question… When are you going?”

I sighed. “Well… I think we’re going to have a fair bit of time, so I’m going to go after New Years. We need a bit of a break before we worry about anything else.”

Flowey made a noise. “We can’t afford to have a break! We have to prepare! We have to get ready, things are all going to shit!”

I sighed. “Flowey, relax. Things are in motion. We will work on them as they come, there’s no reason to fret.” I leaned back. “Besides, I wanna spend a week with my fiancé before I have to work again.”

It was at that moment that my phone rang. I sighed and pulled it out of my pocket. Alphys’ name read clear on the phone so I groaned and picked up. “Hey Alphys what’s up?”

“I need you over here… If that’s okay. W-we need to start working on this if we want it to b-be done in time…”

“Alright… I’ll be over in a second.” I hung up and stood up. “Alright, nevermind on that I’ve got work to do. You two play nice.” With that I grabbed my keys and drove over to Alphys and Undyne’s.


	27. The beginning of the end

Finally getting to see the fruits of your labour, it fills you with Determination.

 

I don’t know if you’ve ever had to work with Alphys when Undyne was around, but I can tell anyone from experience, it wasn’t easy to do. Most of the time was spent keeping Alphys on track.

At one point, I let my temper get the better of me and growled, slamming my hand down on the workbench. “Undyne! I love you, go hang out with Ralsei or something!”

The fish blinked and looked at me. “What’s wrong?”

“I absolutely cannot concentrate with you and Alphys making kissy face doe eyes at each other! I’m happy that you two are still madly in love or whatever but god damn can we cut the libido for a few minutes?”

“Oh… Er… Sorry Rori.”

Alphys blushed a deep red. “I-I’m sorry too…”

“It’s fine. I love both of you still but we’ve gotta get this done. As much as I’d hate to admit it we are on a small bit of a time crunch here so I need Alphys to be concentrating on the matter at hand.”

They both nodded at me and Undyne left the room. I took a few minutes to collect myself, taking deep breaths. I had wanted to put this off for at least a few days, but Alphys had insisted that we carry on. We were now halfway through the process, having been working on it for two days straight, with barely any sleep. I was living off of soda, coffee, and so much candy that I was riding a sugar high a mile long. At least the sleep part of it wouldn’t be that hard.

After my minor blow up, Alphys worked as tirelessly as I did. I was mostly doing research, and tightening bolts where they were needed. It wasn’t hard work on my part, but it was tiring.

By New Years morning I was starting to doze off, when I heard Alphys cry in excitement.

“It’s done!”

That caused me to jump, and I rubbed my eyes. I was exhausted at this point. All I wanted to do was sleep, but I had to power through for a little bit longer. “We’re done?”

She looked at the machine then at me. “W-well… Sorta… It’s the first version of it, I don’t fully know if it will work or not b-but… We should probably give it a shot.”

I nodded and stood up, shambling over to the seat that would be required for the process.

“A-are you ready? I-I’m going to start setting everything up…”

I nodded and put my hand against my chest, allowing my SOUL to come out and play. It didn’t take me any effort anymore, something that made me extremely happy.

Alphys looked at it and tilted her head, but wouldn’t tell me what she was thinking. “O-Okay… So direct your SOUL into this” She gestured to something that looked similar to a bird cage from the classic Looney Toons cartoons. Like the one Tweety was always in, a long pole with the cage on top. I moved my hand, too tired to argue, and the SOUL floated into the cage. Alphys watched it, then closed the door.

“It’s… Still wide enough that it can get out… If need be… but it needs to be closed for this to w-work… I think…”

I shook off her worries. I was too tired to care, and I could only imagine how she felt. She walked over to the machine next to my chair. She picked up a helmet with wires and lights attached to it and placed it on my head. “Th-there’s going to be a pinch, when we do this. I set it up so that I can see what you see… a-and through this microphone I can talk to you even in your d-dreams!”

I was actually really proud of her. She had taken the small suggestions that I had made and expanded them to levels that I couldn’t have even dreamt possible. I couldn’t express that properly, however, so instead I just gave her a thumbs up and smiled. I hoped it was sufficient.

I heard a few clicks, and when I looked over Alphys was flipping a few switches. A moment later, I heard the whir of electronics straining to power up. It was at that moment that my claustrophobia kicked up, and I had to force it back down with all my power and will.

She pushed another button, and I felt a pinch in the back of my neck, as well as on in my temples. It didn’t hurt, but it sure as fuck didn’t feel good. I decided to look away from what she was doing. If I didn’t, my brain would start thinking of everything that could go wrong with a needle sending and receiving electric shocks to and from my brain. I looked at my SOUL in the cage. It looked… surprisingly calm, like it was ready for this.

 

“Alright Rori… I n-need you to go to sleep now…”

“Wait! Before we do this… There’s someone I want here… Give me a second.”

Alphys nodded and I pulled out my phone. There was someone I needed here, someone else who was just as intrigued about the dreams as Alphys and I were. I wanted him to see them first hand, assuming this actually worked.

“Hey, we’re testing out the machine, no guarantee that it’ll work, but I want you to be here in case it does. I want you to see what I’ve been seeing first hand.”

Silence… A long silence that made me a bit fearful that he wouldn’t show, but sure enough a few seconds later there was a crackle of energy in the air, and Sans walked into the room. I felt a bit better now that he was here. I knew that if anything went wrong, he’d pull me out of it. He nodded to me, then to Alphys, and stood next to her, watching the screen.

“Alright… Sleeping now.”

It took longer than I had expected to fall asleep. Turns out that having needles in your skull makes it hard for your body to relax. I spent a good amount of time just thinking of calming things: spending time with my mom, joking with Sans on Thanksgiving… Snuggling with Ralsei and just enjoying each other’s warmth. That’s the one that did it; as soon as I put myself in that mindset I slipped deep into the void, welcoming it with open arms.

I woke up in the misty area, and immediately cheered. “Haha! I did it guys!” I was honestly expecting to not be able to come here of my own volition. I had never chosen to show up in this cold area before. I looked around and was unsurprised to find out that nothing had changed, I.e. I still couldn’t see shit. After a moment I saw a shadowy figure approach me.

“Rori? I was not expecting you to show yourself here. I did not summon you.”

“Well… I chose to show up. I wanted to speak to you.”

“You… Wished to speak to me? What ever would compel you to want that? I thought you despise me.”

I thought on it. “Well, I wouldn’t go that far, moreso that I don’t trust you. But we might have figured out a way to fix that.”

I heard a voice in the back of my head, not Max’s, but Alphys’

“Uh… R-Rori… w-we’re only getting static over here…”

I ignored it for now. “Look, Max, I want to trust you believe me I do, but I can’t do that until I can speak to you face to face.”

“I have already told you Rori, I cannot manifest myself at this moment.”

“I know… But we might be able to…” I gave him a moment before lunging at him. I wasn’t sure how this would work, but I only hoped I was doing the right thing. “ALPHYS NOW!”

I latched onto Max and I sensed anxiety, for just a moment, then there was a flash of light, and what sounded like an explosion. I felt like a part of me had been blown apart. Everything went black, truly black. The kind you only see paintings of creatures long forgotten. I wondered if this was what the bottom of the sea looked like. It terrified me. I didn’t like being unable to see, unable to hear. My own anxiety kicked in and I opened my mouth to scream… But no sound rang through. Regardless, I tried to call for help, but nobody came. I decided that I didn’t want to get used to this newest adjustment, so I did everything I could to wake myself up. I screamed and yelled and actively shook, until finally… A new light hit my eyes, and a soft voice hit my ears. It was motherly, encouraging. It called for me and begged me to follow it, getting louder and louder as I got closer and closer to the light. Finally, the light fully enveloped me and the voice hit me like torrential winds screaming in my ears.

I ended up back in the lab. The light was the bright fluorescent light above me and I suddenly understood why moths were searching for the legendary lamp of old. I could reach up and kiss that light right now, were I not so tired. I looked to my right, where I remembered Sans and Alphys were. They were staring in the direction of the cage, eyes wide open, mouths agape in shock. I blinked and followed their gaze. My eyes were automatically pulled to the ground, where I noticed light black pants, from the shin up was a long black lab coat, seeming to flow without any wind. Underneath was a white turtleneck. My eyes continued up and I saw a pair of white bony hands, with perfectly round holes where the palms would be. Finally, my eyes rested on the face... or should I say skull? He had one eye wide open, the other seeming to be closed, forming an upturned crescent. The right side of his face had a crack going from the top of the eye to the top of his head, it seemed to be an actual break in the bone itself. The left side had a crack going from the bottom of his eye to that, honestly, slightly creepy smile of his. I think what made him creepier was the small orange light replacing a pupil within his open eye. I was reminded of my arrows almost immediately and tilted my head.

I held out my hand to my SOUL, the cage seemed to have been destroyed throughout this exercise, (maybe that's what that white flash was?) and called it back to me. Giving it a quick look over I noticed that the blue and orange lights were gone, and it was just my standard hot pink now. I blinked, put my SOUL back into my chest and looked back up at the figure, who was staring at us inquisitively.

I opened my mouth to speak but was stopped when Sans took a step forward. I saw tears forming from his eye sockets. It confused me: why would Sans be crying? Had Max said something while I was out? My question was answered sooner than I could voice it.

“D… Dad?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow so this story got big fast. I wasnt expecting it to hit that point to be perfectly honest... and i was honestly a bit scared and nervous to post this chapter. This is the last chapter of the story, or at least of this part of the story and i was worried you guys wouldnt like how i ended it. Its kinda a big cliff hanger, of were being perfectly honest. Don't worry though, I'm going to finish it out fully and you guys won't be left hanging. I'm going to take some time to write out the next part of the story before I post it though so you guys won't be able to see where this all leads for a minute. I have plans for the end and I want it to be satisfactory for everyone. I'll post a link here so you guys can go to it directly when you're done with this, so keep an eye out. Next story is when everything truly finishes out. I love you all and thank you for all the support you've given me, it has helped me to make this as good of a story as it is, or rather that I think it is. I'll see you all soon, I promise.


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